Will chrome change the www?

I am really excited waiting for the release of Chrome. Reading the book, it seems like its going to be significantly different from all current browsers.

A letter

Hi Only-person-who-reads-my-blog,

Hope you are doing well. Do let me know when you are free.

Thank you.

Regards,

Jayesh

And another one...

	Had a good start to the day, courtesy this Grey Butcherbird. Was having my usual cup when his mixture of piping cries and throaty calls caught my attention. That's the one common thing amongst all birds who visit me, they're all incredibly noisy!
	I had clicked this bird in June thinking it was the omnipresent Magpie-Lark until today I saw the "hook" on the beak. It feels good to get it right now. More information here.

New kid on the block

On an inevitably lazy Sunday morning, I heard a recognizably new voice outside the balcony. Luckily he was gracious enough to allow ample time to get some reasonable shots (though the tree branches and criss-cross wooden planks of my balcony wall made it a bit hard to get a good look at him) It is a male Oriole(Fig bird). Few more pictures here. Hope the visitors keep coming often!

R.I.P. Randy Pausch

Its never tiring to hear an inspirational person talk, especially if one can see the reason behind his advice.

Stop. Think. Continue...

A significant chunk of our day (and thus our life) is spent doing "routine" things. By that, I mean, activities we are used to doing, and almost do them subconsciously. In my case, for example, brushing teeth, or washing the dishes.

I am almost always thinking about something else while doing the above activities. I thought about it, and as of now, feel that its a mistake. It will be nice to concentrate on what I'm doing rather than something else. So now the idea is to repeat the Stop what you're doing - Think if you can do it better - Continue doing it at regular intervals, to keep myself honest. My mind has a tendency to wander, so I am resorting to this.

Lets see how it goes.

Dharmaandh

Paradox of the month-

Ram bhakti (devotion) can lead to harmony among all religions - L.K. Advani

(For those who do not know, Ram is a Hindu mythological hero)

Money... get away...

I cannot see how acquisition of wealth can be the purpose of anyone's life. In spite of trying, I don't quite understand the rationale behind that. I think of it this way - I try to remember some of the best moments in my life so far. None of them had anything to do with monetary gains.

I unabashedly apply this thinking to corporations as well. I think the purpose of a corporation should be more than just making money. While many claim to have grand visions and missions, it all falls apart when confronted by the almighty $. Excellence is reduced merely to a word on their powerpoint presentations.

Anyway. Hope I make more sense the next time I'm tipsy.

Cheers...

Firefox - 3b5 has saved the day

I had all but given up hope from firefox. Newer versions were coming in thick and fast (which meant browser restarts) and each version felt slower than the previous one.

Enter Firefox 3 beta.

Its leaner, faster and yet packed with even more features.

The search-within-the-address-bar (as I call it) is simply superb. Its going to change the way I think while typing an address in the browser's address bar. To revisit a site, you just have to think of a word which appeared in either the hyperlink or the title of the page and firefox shows it neatly in a drop-down.

Try it today!

The problem with growth

Growth is generally equated with success for a company. But it doesn't have to be true all the time. Here are my top few reasons why.

Finding suitable talent

While growing rapidly, it is important to realize that the pool of talent is most likely not going to expand at the same rate. Now when there aren't enough suitable people available, It is easy to fall in the trap of lowering expectations from prospective employees just because there aren't enough good people available. (In the hope that the good ones will carry them through) While there is some merit to this argument, it is invariably stretched too far. In such a situation, if a company keeps hiring aggressively, it probably does okay for some period of time (until the lack of good results from these people manifests itself in the results). After that, the customers generally realize that they should be moving on. Maybe this is why some companies which rise meteorically fall at the same rate.

Imbibing the vision

The more the number of people, the harder it is to find people who subscribe to the vision of the company and whole-heartedly feel that they are a part of it. A more aggravated version of this problem is that the company becomes like a machine with many parts which aren't working in synchronization towards achieving a common goal.

Management overhead

This is probably the least of the worries, but cannot be ignored completely either. Many companies fail at effective project management. And if its happening for a company, it can only get worse when as they become larger in size.

Managerosis

managerosis noun :

A corporate disease characterized by the infestation of an organization hierarchy by Managers; most of whom add no value.

Now reading...

I liked reading when I was a kid. Somewhere down the line, I just lost that habit and the desire. Maybe it had something to do with my obsession for music and playing the guitar. But now, I think (or hope) its coming back slowly. And what a difference it makes! Its not just the knowledge you gain from the book that counts. It also changes the way you look at things. I know that sounds cliched, so here's an example. I recently got a copy of Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler (thanks to my growing interest in my work and meeting great people like Tom from ThoughtWorks). While I'm reading it, I am exposed to the thinking of the co-authors as well. And soon, I might start looking for their books, which exposes me to more and more ...

The bottom line is that if you feel passionate about something, get a book by a leading personality in that area. In the worst case, you'll be just reading a book. In the best-case, you'll be transformed.

Spam can be interesting

Here are my top 3 emails today with the most interesting subject line -

1. I carry a bazooka in my pants, walking around.
2. One inch just leads to another, and 9 inches leads to the ultimate women pleasuring machine.
3. Okay. I admit it. I'm just here for the sexual thrills.

I find them quite hilarious.

What's common in an inkjet printer and an electric toothbrush?

Printer ink is way more expensive than it needs to be. I did a bit of googling to see if someone else thinks so too. I stumbled on an article which says that printer ink costs $13,000 a gallon. Printers are being made cheaper by the manufacturers whereas ink prices have soared.

In another story, I noticed that in the local store, an electric toothbrush costs as low as $10 and a set of 3 toothbrush-heads cost $32.

Consequently, whenever I feel that my toothbrush head is wearing off, I am tempted to throw it away and buy a new one rather than going for the pack of overpriced toothbrush-heads. Also, in the long run, people will end up spending more since the part that needs to be replaced frequently costs so much more.

Isn't the best way to control the huge amount of plastic waste that we generate is to simply make stuff that lasts longer and doesn't need to be chucked out of the window every few months?

Its sad that for instant gains, companies are all too ready to hurt the consumers; and the environment; in the long run.