Guess what kind of people use livejournal !??!

Luckily I chose blogger! Never had to go through this anguish and end up in livejournal :D
( See here: Real Life Comics )

Spam on my blog

Damn.. why am I seeing so many spam comments on my blog ? Is this happening only on mine or are others deleting this/taking some action ???

CEO speak... Contd.

Because of public demand(ahem...), I am posting some thoughts of what the CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, spoke when he was at Auburn.
(Disclaimer: These thoughts may have been modified by me and may not accurately portray the thoughts of Jeff Immelt. These are just from memory and should not be miscontrued as slander or malign).

Hmmm...There were some problems.. I went with a book and pen to take some notes... But there was not even enough standing space...The audi was jammed... packed to the brim.. people were sitting in the aisles, standin on their toes...so will just put out some things which I remember ...

Bureaucracy. Any huge organization will get bogged down by bureaucracy. GE is bigger than many many countries in the financial countries. If you really need to innovate, cut down the red-tapes. Allow a forum for all employees to put out their thoughts.

Innovation. As Rutherford said to a graduate student who said he worked day and night continuously -"then when do you think?!? " ...Devote some qualtiy time to think. Just the rigmarole of work will kill your creativity. Companies ought to give time to relax to all classes of employees - this will indirectly help it in getting dividends.

Management. When someone asked him if there was one company that *he* - as the CEO of GE admired, what would that be. The answer was no surprise. The one company that really is at the leading edge of innovation, quite unbureaucratic and SUPERBLY managed is Toyota. He said that Toyota is the blue chip amongst the Fortune 10-20 companies... Almost all of them look up to it.

Other than that, there was some mention about the Jack Welch Technology Centre in Bangalore(this is the biggest research center of GE outside USA). And the perpetual worry that US is producing lesser and lesser engineers and graduate students.

I am trying to find where they have posted the video of his speech. Will try to get that.

CEO speak...

Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman of the Board and CEO, General Electric, was at Auburn to give a talk on 'Leadership and Innovation' on Friday. It was inspiring to say the least.

More details about the talk later. I'll try to get a video of his talk.

Dur(Su)yodhana !??!

I have heard Duryodhana also being referred to as Suyodhana in some places... In fact, I had asked JRS when we were in Vijaya High School... for the non VHS guys, JRS was our initial class teacher(1994-97 batch) and the best Sanskrit teacher I've ever seen. He had given a complex explanation which I seem to have forgotten.

Can someone clarify ?

Mood: mai parachikoLLing

Reader's (In)Digest?!?

I have been a regular reader of Reader's Digest(RD) since a long time... But somehow the articles in the editions post 2000 dont look so good. I mean I still re-read the older editions... Thanks to Srinivas Prasad, who had an almost complete collection of RD from 1959-present, I read most of them during my B.E days in Bangalore.

I recently, chanced upon a book titled 'Fun Fare', a publication of RD(first edn 1949) which is a collection of humour and anecdotes in book form. Amongst its editors are the who's who of humour - Bennett Cerf(the maverick founder of Random House), J.P.Mc Evoy and the inimitable Groucho Marx. This book with humourous anecdotes dating back to 60-70 years still brings laughter and mirth when I read it. Same with the older editions of RD magazine. But somehow, I cant seem to associate with articles of my own generation(so anachronistic!) since it has started publishing a lot of gossip.

This has also been echoed by a couple of my friends who seem to think that the quality of material in RD has gone down drastically over the years. But wait a sec... RD is a collection of articles and bits and pieces that readers themselves send! So does this mean that the quality of readership has gone down?!?!?

Resurrection

After a long hiatus without a comp( but with lots of work), I am finally back! In fact, special thanks to Kishan for putting this 'Persons Missing' notice on his website and even mailing me about it !

It was heartening to see that there are a few people who read my blog and I need to get back and start typing.

Mood: Exhilarated.
Music: Baa Baaro baaro baaro saadhanakerige...

Error 404: Host not found.

Not been able to do anything since the last 4 days. The department network admin has confiscated my computer along with 2 others' for illegally installing Linux dual boot which is supposedly forbidden by the College of Engg policies :-(( ... Don't know what is gonna happen to the comps, data and when we are gonna get them back :-((

I can't understand why they have an aversion to Linux... I had to use it once for a simulator which runs only on Linux... So now I am getting used to working in the normal workstation labs instead of my PC.

And all the sites and blogs that I used to visit were bookmarked in my PC... Now all that is gonna go I suppose... :-(

Mood : Terribly Outcasted.


[P.S: Error 404 is the message you see on the net when there is a problem with the client machine(The server is saying that you've done something wrong, such as misspell the URL or request a page which is no longer there). The origin (supposedlygiven by Tim Berners Lee who invented the web and the first browser) is that 404 was the room number in CERN(Geneva) with webservers where the Internet first started working. The first 4 refers to a client error and the 0 refers to a syntax error. However, there are contentions to this interesting myth with people saying that room 404 in CERN was used for other purposes! ]

Live Life King-size!

Saw Anand for the ... ummm... I have lost count. There has never been a movie like that and probably never will be. Makes me so emotional every time I watch it. I keep silently praying that the voice on the tape at the end is not that of a tape, but that of the the live Anand.


Poem in The Evergreen Classic Hindi Movie ANAND. Recited by Amitabh Bacchan

Maut tuu ek kaviitaa hai
mujhse ek kavita ka waada hai milegi mujhko

doobti nabzon mein jab dard ko neend aane lage
zard sa chehra lekar jab chaand ufaq tak pahunche
din abhi paani mein ho, raat kinaare ke kareeb
na andhera na ujaala ho, na abhi raat na din

jism jab khatm ho aur rooh ko jab saans aaye
mujhse ek kavita ka waada hai milegi mujhko

And those immortal lines spoken by Rajesh Khanna at the end (that makes me cry every time I see the movie) :


Zindagi aur Maut Upar wale ke haath hai Jahan Panah ...
Hum Sab to rang Manch ki Katputliyan hai...
Kaun Kab Kaise Uthega... Yeh Koi nahin Jaanta.. Ha HA HA HA...

So many things to learn in life from that one character...

Current Mood: Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli...

Book log.

I just finished reading 'Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science' by Atul Gawande. Really amazing book. Takes a peep into the minds of the doctors and what really happnes behind the scenes of the cool and impervious face of the doctor.

I honestly think that the author (he is incidentally an American, born to parents of Indian origin) has escaped from coming under serious attack from other doctors because of his strong academic background - a graduate degree from the Harvard medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Here is one paragraph that makes you re-read it many times.

"Surgeons as a group, adhere to a curious egalitarianism. They believe in practice, not talent. People often assume t hat you have to have great hands to become a surgeon, but it's not true.When I interviewed to get into surgery programs, no one made me sew or take a dexterity test or checked if my hands were steady. You do not even need all ten fingers to be accepted. ....... what's most important to them is finding people who are conscientious, industrious and boneheaded enough to stick at practising this one difficult thing day and night for years on end. ........ Skill, surgeons believe, can be taught; tenacity cannot. "

This is not just about surgeons... Makes me think that pretty much everything is achievable with perseverance, hardwork and dedication.

Current Mood: Inspired