Space Walk

Via Big Picture

Can you tell a story in exactly 140 characters?

Tell a story in 140 characters. Not 140 or less but exactly 140 characters. Seems like a difficult task but over 10,000 entries were received for such a contest.

Check it out here.

The winning entries are:

First Place:

“Time travel works!” the note read. “However you can only travel to the past and one-way.” I recognized my own handwriting and felt a chill.

Second Place:

Tony was a snitch, so I wasn’t surprised when his torso turned up in the river. What did surprise me, though, was where they found his head.

Third Place

When Gibson hit that homerun in the fall of eighty-eight, my old man had never been so happy. He hugged me for the first time. I was eleven.

First Honorable Mention:

Happily sobbing she held the boy, her memory of his violent conception falling away. She had learned to love him, this would be her revenge.

Second Honorable Mention:

The priest at the funeral home asked if she had been a loving mother. The children all stared at each other. The silence spoke volumes.

India out of World Cup

After India's shocking defeat to Bangladesh and their inability to defeat Sri Lanka in an important match had ensured they would be out. Yesterday, Bangladesh defeated Bermuda and sealed the fate.

The world cup format was an exciting one in the sense that no team could afford to lose against the minnows in the group stage. I think in Super 8 it would have been a different story but each team had to win atleast 2 matches to make it to Super 8 stage.

After losing to Bangladesh Indian team was in a do or die match with Sri Lanka. And what a mess that was. I believe the team has been over-rated for a while. The senior players in the team are there not because they are performing well but on their past glories.

It is time that BCCI have a fair selection procedure on the lines of Australia. They should select players who are performing on the domestic scene and not on potential. It is all right for a player to not perform in 5 to 6 matches but then a limit should be set. The players should have to fight for their place in the team and not take it for granted.

The pathetic play in the world cup and their shocking exit has been a total disappointment. I hope players are held accountable for the fiasco. Everyone should be asked to perform at domestic level before they are allowed back in the national team.

Blogger's spam-prevention

This post was written on 3/15. One good thing about the whole fiasco is that I don't have to do word verification before every post.

I have opened a blog at abhikush.wordpress.com but I am more comfortable with blogger user interface. I am going to stick around sometime longer with blogger.


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I logged in today (3/15) to find my blog blocked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. Needless to say I am angry.

Frankly, with so many options out there for blogging, I am surprised they are implementing a technology which has not been thoroughly tested. I mean beta testing is fine but they should at least do some testing on their own.

I think the benchmark to implement anything live should be to avoid false negatives i.e. marking incorrect blogs as spam. They already have functionality in place to flag a blog shouldn't their "robots" give benefit of doubt to the blog instead of blocking it.

The spam prevention page states they are implementing this because of the ease with which spam blogs are created (some kind of automated robot). Shouldn't they work on stopping that instead of trying to categorize blogs as spam. What makes me even more angry is the fact whenever I post I have to clear word verification. I am not sure how they can think an automated robot can do that.

Finally, they did not even have the courtesy to send an e-mail that my blog has been blocked. I am not a regular blogger and could have really missed logging on the site. In that case my blog would have been deleted. Now that is just horrible. They already have my e-mail address how long does it take to create a functionality that sends out an e-mail when your blog is blocked. I guess they are too busy creating a flawed solution to spam blogs that they didn't even wait to think about it.

I am not sure how much time this will take to get resolved. I am seriously thinking of moving my blog to some place else.

Internet

The Best Time to Buy Everything

Ever wondered when is the best time to buy stuff. The article The Best Time to Buy Everything provides just that information.

And yes, it is more than generic advise like shopping for X'mas in July or buying summer clothes in Winter. Among other things it tells you about when is the best time to buy appliance, air tickets and cars among other things.

How To Give A Good Compliment

How To Give A Good Compliment

There’s nothing like a warm, sincere compliment to make your day. Instead of waiting for one, why not give one out? Take it from me, the more you give, the more you find you’ll receive.

1) Make your compliment specific.

“That necklace looks really good on you” makes a bigger impact compared to “you look really good today”. The more specific the better, it makes the person feel like you notice them.

2) Back up your compliment.

Don’t just stop at “that necklace looks really good on you”. Your compliment becomes stronger when you say why you think so; “that necklace looks really good on you because it matches your eyes”.

3) Ask a question with your compliment.

And if you want to use it as a conversational starter, ask a question about the subject of your compliment; “that necklace looks really good on you because it matches your eyes. Where did you find it?”."

Top 10 Largest Databases in the World

For more information check this article

10. Library of Congress
By the Numbers
130 million items (books, photographs, maps, etc)
29 million books
10,000 new items added each day
530 miles of shelves
5 million digital documents
20 terabytes of text data

9. Central Intelligence Agency
By the Numbers
100 FOIA items added each month
Comprehensive statistics on more than 250 countries and entities
Unknown number of classified information

8. Amazon
By the Numbers
59 million active customers
More than 42 terabytes of data

7. YouTube
By the Numbers
100 million videos watched per day
65,000 videos added each day
60% of all videos watched online
At least 45 terabytes of videos

6. ChoicePoint
By the Numbers
250 terabytes of personal data
Information on 250 million people

5. Sprint
By the Numbers
2.85 trillion database rows.
365 million call detail records processed per day
At peak, 70,000 call detail record insertions per second

4. Google
By the Numbers
91 million searches per day
accounts for 50% of all internet searches
Virtual profiles of countless number of users

3. AT&T
By the Numbers
323 terabytes of information
1.9 trillion phone call records

2. National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
By the Numbers
2.8 petabytes of data
Operated by 2,000 computational scientists

1. World Data Centre for Climate
By the Numbers
220 terabytes of web data
6 petabytes of additional data


* Additional Databases
The following databases were unique (and massive) in their own right, and just fell short of the cut on our top 10 list.
Nielsen Media Research / Nielsen Net Ratings

Myspace

United States Customs

HPSS

Global warming or global cooling?

Kathmandu gets first snowfall in 63 years: "Snow fell on Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for the first time in 63 years on Wednesday, stirring excitement and curiosity among residents and their children."

Weather officials said the brief snowfall, which lasted only a few minutes, was the result of a "westerly disturbance" over Nepal that earlier in the week caused heavy rains.

History of Religion

Found this cool map:



NOTE: This map may appear as a white space on slow internet connections. The map will load after a few seconds. Please be patient!

Flash required for viewing this map. Get Flash

General Motors Weight Loss Diet

GENERAL MOTORS WEIGHT LOSS DIET^*

The following diet and health program was developed for the employees and the dependants of General Motors Inc.

The program was developed in conjunction with the grant from the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. It was first tried at the Johns Hopkins Research Centre and was approved for distribution by the Board of Directors of General Motors Corporation at a general meeting on August 15, 1995.

General Motors Corporation wholly endorsed this program and is making it available to all employees and families. This program will be available at all General Motors Food service facilities.

It is the management’s intention to facilitate a welfare and fitness program for everyone.

This program is designed for a target weight loss of 5-6 Kg per week. It will also improve your attitude and emotions because of its systematic cleansing effects. The effectiveness of this seven-day plan is that the foods eaten burn more calories than they give to the body in caloric value. This plan can be used as often as you like to without any fear of complications. It is designed to flush your system of impurities and give you a feeling of well being. After seven days you will begin to feel lighter by at least 10 pounds. You will have an abundance of energy and an improved disposition.

During the first seven days you must drink 10 glasses of water each day.

DAY ONE

All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consists of all fruits you want. It is suggested you consume lost of watermelon and cantaloupe.

DAY TWO

All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the new and cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the account or type. Avoid oil and coconut while cooking vegetables. Have large boiled potato for breakfast.

DAY THREE

Any mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet and no potatoes today.

DAY FOUR

Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. You can also have I bowl of vegetables soup.

DAY FIVE

Today is a feast day. You will eat 1 cup of rice. You also have to eat six whole tomatoes and drink 12 glasses of water today to cleanse your system of the excess uric acid you will be producing.

DAY SIX

Today is another all vegetables day. You must eat 1 cup of rice today and eat all the vegetables you want cooked and uncooked to your hears content.

DAY SEVEN

Today your food intake will consist of 1 cup rice, fruit juice and the vegetables you care to consume. Tomorrow morning you will be five to eight kgs. lighter than 1 week ago. If you desire further weight loss, repeat the program again. Repeat the program as often as you like, however, it is suggested that you rest for three days before every repetition.

You have your system under control now and it will thank you for all the purging and cleansing you just gave it. Even more than a diet program it is good to follow this diet once in a while to clean your digestive system and remove toxic substances that have a accumulated in the system.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

The most important element of the program is the 10 tall glasses of water a day. You can also flavour the water will some lemon to make the drink easier. While on the program, take only black coffee and never more than one teaspoon of oil. Preferably do not use oil because the high calorific content. No fruit juices before day seven.

Here is what happens to you body while you are on this program and how and why it works.

Day 1: You are preparing your system for the upcoming program. Your only source of nutrition is fresh fruits. Fruits are nature’s perfect food. They provide everything you can possibly want to sustain life except total balance and variety.

Day 2: Starts with a fix complex carbohydrates in the form of a boiled potato. This is taken in the form of a boiled potato and taken in the morning to provide energy and balance. The rest of the day too consists of vegetables which are virtually calories free and provide essential nutrients and fibre.

Day 3: Eliminates the potato because you get your carbohydrates from fruits. Your system is now prepared to start burning excess pounds. You will have cravings, which should start to diminish by day four.

Day 4: Bananas and milk. You are in for a surprise. You probably will not be able to eat all the bananas allowed. But they are there fore the potassium you have lost and the sodium you may have missed the last three days. You will notice a definite loss of desire for sweets and you will be surprised at how easy this day will go.

Day 5: Rice and tomatoes. The rice is for the carbohydrates and the tomatoes are for the digestion and the fibre. Lots of water purifies your system. You should notice colourless urine today. Do not feel you have to eat one cup rice, you may eat less. But you may eat six tomatoes.

Day 6: It is similar to five. Vitamins and fibre from the vegetables and carbohydrates from the rice. By now your system is in a total weight loss inclination. There should be a noticeable difference in the way you look today compared to day one.

Day 7: You may celebrate with champagne. You may also have white wine instead of champagne, but in al practical programs, and in all surveys done to measure the success of the program, General Motors employees have always preferred champagne to white wine.

Morethan one cup of coffee with milk is especially forbidden. Milk and oil add empty calories to your diet. Avid coffee lovers can console themselves with black coffee. However, after the first week, it will help your digestion and set your stomach. The key think to remeb4er is that if you are hungry at any time, then you are not following the diet correctly. Almost all people give up the diet when they are hungry because of dieting. The secret of this program is that you should never hungry. If it is a vegetable day, eat so many vegetables so that you are never hungry. If it is a fruits day, eat so much fruits that you are never hungry. You may be bored of eating vegetables all day, but you should not be hungry. You can take any amount of General Motors wonder soup on any day.

GENERAL MOTORS WONDER SOUP

The following soup is intended as a supplement to your diet. It can be eaten any time of the day in virtually unlimited quantities. You are encouraged to drink large quantities of this soup.

23 oz water

06 large onions

02 green peppers

03 whole tomatoes

1 cabbage

1 bunch celery - add herbs and seasoning as desired.

This program is highly recommended for women and men above 40 for whom excess weight is especially dangerous. Excess weight for women aggravates arthritis problems and leads to rapid joint decay. Pain and joint deterioration can be lessened by weight loss as weight loss removes the stress on the knee joint. Excess weight is the most critical factor in keeping good health and excess weight is responsible for the most problems including coronary diseases, heart problems, arthritis and cancer among other serious life threatening diseases. Most serious health problems can be avoided by the single function of maintaining an ideal weight. Daily mild exercise of 20 minutes is also essential. Do not tire yourself out, but being regular in your exercise and maintaining an ideal weight goes a long way in ensuring a happy, healthy and long life.

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^*This article is published on this website assuming that all the material herein are in the public domain, as the intention of this article is a noble one - to make humans healthy. It's published here with noble intentions. If you find that this article is copyrighted and is not supposed to be published without permission, please let me know.

ICICI Bank's unresponsive customer service

ICICI bank lists down the phone contact numbers for multiple cities but its a miracle to get through to them.

They have grown so much and are so focussed on big picture that they have forgotten how to do small things right. Customer service matters. By focusing too much on getting new customers they overlook caring for their existing customers.

I just hope they realize that to grow its not only important to get new customers but keep the one's you already have.

President of India asks a question

"What should we do to free our planet from terrorism?" This is the question that president of India has asked on Yahoo Answers.

At first, I thought this was a hoax but after a carefully reading I believe this is true.

YAHOO! ANSWERS staff notice: You can also view the President's video here: http://in.promos.yahoo.com/atp/ Register there to also win really cool prizes! Only Indian residents will be eligible for the prizes. Winners will be contacted on their yahoo email ids, so keep checking. This is really the President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Keep checking our blog for more on this and the winners: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-te5Q5aMoRKfY7EFGVSqQq52GFXY7cinb?p=1898

Preseident of India also has his own website where anybody can ask him a question. There would be a screening process before the message reaches the President.

This was posted on Yahoo over 4 days ago, I am just curious why this was not picked up by any TV channels.

It is a cool and innovative idea to connect with the people of India. If he took the trouble to ask a question I am sure he will read atleast some of the questions. I do hope that the President can now act on some of the ideas presented there.

Happy New Year

My first post in 2007. Have a prosperous new year.

Kanbay acquired by Capgemini

Kanbay, the company I work for, has been acquired by Capgemini. The initial report (management talk) suggests that there are not going to be any forseeable lay-offs.

From my friends, who shifted to Capgemini from Kanbay, I have heard that the culture of Capgemini is similar or even better than Kanbay. Additionally, Capgemini are supposed to be good paymasters. All this sounds good. It will take some time for things to fall in place. A clearer picture will emerge only in Q1 of 2007.

There are questions that all the employees have but due to the secrecy of the deal there are no answers with anyone except the senior managers. They will be preparing a presentation and the information will trickle down. The presentations (open house) would be a good time to ask questions that I have.

In the meantime, I hope I get good news from the B-Schools that I have applied too. I am particularly concerned about Columbia. Since they have rolling admissions and I haven't heard anything so far, I am getting a little anxious. I keep refreshing the Stats in the hope something might change but nothing does. I don't expect to hear anything from Chicago & ISB interview before 15th Nov. Cornell results will come out by 17th Nov (I am interviewing on 28th Oct).

So, whether it is about Capgemini acquires Kanbay or about business schools, there is currently too much uncertainity.

MNC Customer Service

I don't dislike government, its the lack of focus on the customers that I hate. However, the MNC's are also not that great either.

In US, I find that customer service of many MNCs is as bad as the government departments. Atleast in India the customer service was better. The people there were more polite. Not so in US.

Firstly, you have to wait ridiculous amount of time listening to promotions just to be able to speak to someone. Once you get through and explain the problem you find its the wrong department and you are then transferred to another department. Again you have to start from the begining and explain it all over again.

In India 24/7 really means 12/6 (i.e. 12 hrs in a day for 6 days). In US 24/7 really means 8/5 . I mean sure you can talk to them but if there is a problem that needs a person to come and have a look at then those are the hours that they work.

So unless you are a big fish and have the clout don't count on MNC customer service being any better than government beaureaucracy.

Government Inefficiency

Lately, I have read a lot of articles (mostly mises.org newsletter) on government interference and its effect (usually bad). And I agree with it, though I do really would not go to the extreme of no goverment at all.

As an Indian I have witnessed the resources wasted by a government organization. The best way to go forward is to get the government out of as many sectors as possible. This will not only utilize the resource in best possible way but also reduce corruption.

Nowhere is the improvement in service & reduction in prices more evident than in the Indian telecom sector. Just few years back it was a pain to get a telephone connection. The sector was then opened to private players. Everything that has happened since then is revolutionary. In October 2000, I got my 1st cell phone. The price of an incoming call was 4 Rs/min and it was same for outgoing call. And this was the prise was in Mumbai I am sure the prices elsewhere would have been higher. However, as more and more players entered the market the prics fell. Reliance entered and the prices dropped drastically. Today, any one who wants a phone can have one.

How did this happen? Well, as soon as the government opened the sector enterpreneurs saw and opportunity and grabbed it. No government regulation forced Reliance to charge 40 paise/min for a call on top of giving away cell phones for free. It was the competetive market place which decided Reliance's strategy.

As a result of privatizaton, the government arms (BSNL & MTNL) were left with no choice but to offer the same services. I am sure this will reduce corruption atleast in these departments. The people if they are not happy with BSNL / MTNL have an option. They do not have to wait indefnitely for a phone connection.

In every sector the government has privatized the services have become cheaper and better. Examples include Air Travel (contrast Air Deccan with Indian Airlines), Banking (contrast ICICI with SBI). Even though the efficiency of private sector will not be evident on day 1 of reforms they do become evident few years later.

Interesting Quote

October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.

-- Mark Twain

Holi

Celebrated holi after 3 or 4 years... it was total fun... went out to Manas Resorts (Pune). They had rain dance and all. Total fun.

Search for broadband connection

I was trying to search the net for various broadband connections in Pune. Unfortunately, I was unable to get much information but I did find out about this site http://broadbandforum.in which pointed out that all the services are crappy.

I think I will go for BSNL connection as that is the best of the worst.