Illegal downlod, Bond, Travellers,Wave

I am back from a meeting of our association in which we discussed the inordinate delay about our Housing project of Renaissance project Park III. It looks like it is going to take more and more delay with things moving at snails pace in the common utility front like power and municipal water. Looks like we need to escalate the issues. Matters were not helped by the traffic chaos due to the Marathon relay arranged here today. Just wonder, when the public will have free access to roads without all the nuisance of rally, marathon, protests etc!!!!. Bangalore traffic has become nightmare!!.

I was not surprised to read that people all over the world are resorting to illegal downloads from sites. The articles show that in Aussie land, Uk the use of bit torrent sites is rampant and is a big concern due to the recession in which people care for every penny. This is more a personal experience as this week I spent about 85$ for renewing my wife's laptop Norton's account. The satisfaction of buying original stuff is amazing!!. Of course, I must make a disclosure that some of the info that comes from Bittorent sites are useful, no questions!!. It comes from a click of a mouse and of course, the charges you pay of 45$ per month, for your ISP provider is the cost for that I guess!!!.

This week marks 100 years of James Bond's secret service MI6. What a character!!, and thrilling the audience in both paper and celluloid. My favorite Bond actor has always been Sean Connery. No questions. Don't remember seeing the latest bond movies!! (Bump in to them in flights more to kill time!!).

It is coincidence that as I read about the violent attacks on Indian students in Australia this week. I read couple of articles about Aussies being the worst tourists abroad!!. It is not surprising given the adjustments needed to be a traveler!!. It is tough and needs resilience to fit in to local culture and a sense of emotional adjustment.

We agree that politicians are made of stronger stuff and don't let their emotions out!. So it was kind of strange to read about El Salvador's president weeping over his son's death and bring the perpetrators to justice. After all every one is human!!.

Google news on Working on Algorithms to see which employee would leave has interesting aspects of employee retention prediction. In a sense, scary that it becomes commercially viable!!. On other google news, watch out for Google wave, the interactive aspects of communication which would go to a next level. My feeling / excitement on seeing demo of Wave was the same as when I saw MS sharepoint about 3 years back!!! for data storage and interaction and which is part and parcel today for me at my work in Honeywell.

Ok, so on IPL Cricket, the Hyderabad team won the championship. It was a great result and personally satisfying one, more so they beat a team in the final sponsored by an Brewery brand!!!. I am also glad that I stayed away from live cricket having watched in total less than 20 Minutes over 35 days. Good for me!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik
Bangalore,India.

Iron Lady, WSJ, Toddler, expenses,

The week was a hectic one with the preparations for the house warming ceremony Friday for our new apartment at Renaissance Park III at Malleswaram. The last 3 weeks work was like about 3 years work to bring the house to speed with the chasing/ followup. The function went well, hopefully we should be able to move in the next 6 to 8 weeks.

I could not write about the Iron Lady I admire most,(Conservative of course, who else) Margaret Thatcher last week due to various issues covered and for want of time and space. It is 30 years since she assumed office and brought a turnaround to the British economy as well as the famous war. She and Golda Meir are the kind of leaders the world needs to turn things around. I am sure her leadership style would return to UK in the next 50 weeks!!.

Glad to see the Wall Street Journal print edition in India. While I follow WSJ articles online as well as through the Indian print partner Livemint till now. I need to decide on subscribing to it. The subscription price US$ 250 for 2 years at 50% discount, looks little high for a personal subscription. With the recessionary trends, I wonder any individual would ask for official subscription ??!!! Worth hearing comments!!!

It was an amazing story of toddler ordering an excavator for 15,000 $ thro online auction site. He wanted a toy and ordered it online. I recollect my cousin informing me that his son tried online buy once and burnt a hole in the wallet!!. Perils of online access.!!

Echoing my views on the Pathetic state of Indian TV coverage here is the column by Mahesh Vijapurkar. Very practical, best way is to go back to the old days of watching TV News twice a day (Morning and night).. Just wonder when the standard of Indian TV would improve????, not in my time. Anyway, I had stopped watching/ wasting time. It is less than 10 min a day!!!.

The expenses scam in UK is a big news, the speaker resigned an historic event. Wonder what the British would think, if they hear the way our Member of Parliament do things, to me what the British folks did is nothing compared to what our guys do here!!!.
But people are sensitive and politicians are thin skinned!!!.

Came across the NIGHT JACK Blog of a frustrating British policemen. Very Intestine facts. On the Blogfront, here is an interesting post by Anna Farmery on Blogging facts.

I leave this week, with the former South Korean president, Roh Moo -Hyun committing suicide over corruption and favouritism scandal. Not surprising there, the high moral and ethics that prevail in South Korea which I had witnessed. Our politician will say........../

Until next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Election, Balmer, Ramesh, Food, Counterfeit

So, the results of the Indian elections were out yesterday, Saturday and as with the election results over the last 8 months all over the world, it has been a disappointing results to take for me. The only silver lining I see in this election is people have voted overwhelmingly for a party with interests/ focus in the national main stream. So this at least gives the government of Dr Manmohan Singh, that comes in a free mandate to do reforms which are badly needed without the whims to attend of smaller, regional parties and the left which I feel should have been long consigned to museum as happened in other parts of the world. So in the interst of national development, we hope things start happening after 5 retarded years. Wishing the Prime minister good luck till next elections. May be, we await a leader who would do a turn around for our agenda!! There is always hope!!. (Labor waited 18years in UK, so a 10 is acceptable)

As a practice now a days I stay away from TV and followed the whole election (but for 15 minutes of TV) on the web. My classmate Thirumalai Rajan, settled now in Bay area, Frisco runs a blog called IDLY VADAI( A south Indian Breakfast dish) in which I followed the fortunes of politician from my state of Tamil Nadu. Interesting developments as well as shameful display of money muscle power.

Moving away from political chaos and mess, it was refreshing to hear Steve Balmer speak to upcoming students at Stanford on challenges and issues ahead in Tech world as well as in MS. Worth a listen from the Microsoft CEO. On another front, this week I tried MS IE 8.0 for a change after downloading, and I was pleasantly surprised, it is not bad after all. Although when I tried to set up weather (It is now raining since 2pm, 4 hours ago) for Bangalore in the browser, there were B and C grade cities, but no Bangalore( A city with 7 mio people!!!).

Of late, I have switched to spending more time on listening to the south Indian music more of instrumental types, which I find very very soothing. I hit up on a great fusion of Western and south indian music by Ramesh of Nadaswaram fusion. A fabulous one especially Malai Soodinal.(Garland exchange during Indian marriage). I am looking for the lyrics for the songs, can anyone help?

So, the recession effects are beginning to take efforts in this part of the world. I am seeing in some places where, canteen food is no longer subsidised and you got to pay for yourself and buy food. I am seeing amazing change in the crowd behavior that comes to canteen has dwindled and many many people carry packed food from home, I am yet to do the switch over. Also the good part is the wastage of food has shrunk dramatically. I see clean plates at the disposal points, a great feeling. Food waste is a crime. Also hearing from friends that some companies are switching to 4 day week. Hmmm, sign of times!!!. Lets hope things move back to gear fast.!!.

I was amazed to read about the counterfeit racket in Lima, Peru. What was shocking also there was an arrest of 90 year old woman in robbery attempt. Wonder where things are going????!!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Outage, Githa, House,Evil

I was away last week and was tied up to ceremonies due to death in family and so good to be back.

I was away in Bombay for the ceremony and for the first time faced power outage in Bombay, black outs are common. Being a regular visitor in Bombay for more than 24 years, this was a surprise and I was always felt that Bombay is immune from power cuts. Everything is relative in time, it appears!!!.

I got access to the audio of teachings of Swami Chinmayananda on Bhagavad Gita. ( 55 parts each of 2 Hrs!!). What master preacher he was!!, he has presented the complex aspects of Krisha's battle field teachings to Arjuna in an elementary form with a sense of wit and laced with real life incidents. Worth listening. I plan to spend 2 Hrs on Saturday/ Sunday for this.

We are nearing the completion of our new apartment, Renaissance Park III in Malleswaram, Bangalore. The Project delayed by a year, we hope to see some happy end to this ordeal, may be over the next 4 to 6 weeks. We are in better shape than many other projects which are in inordinate delay as well as being scared by news paper advertisements by authorities (DLF) warning of purchase of properties.

So after 20 days, yesterday, I spent 8 min to watch live 11 balls in IPL. It was an accident, but yes, the fact that I stayed away from this evil for 20 days is a good sign.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Chagas, Twitter,Marc Dreir, Job Hunting, Ants

We use the term"Chagas" as a term for expressing something when a happy ending in an unexpected situation. I was therefore horrified to read an article that Chagas is the number one killer in Latin America. This is an insect bite in the face and causes Heart and intestine failure. I was shocked to read that it is as a dreaded killer as fearful as Malaria in Africa and still nothing being done in a large scale to combat the disease.

Many months back I listened to the podcast in the Stanford university thought entrepreneur series when Evan Williams spoke about his journey in creating blogger and his work with Google. I could sense that time, listening that this guy has untapped potential. It is great to see that the Twitter is his brain child. I like Twitter and created account in 2007 but is not crazy about it, but I appreciate the effort. His next revolution, as indicated, email.

Mark has come with a great podcast last week on freeing your calendar for accomdating your schedule to be effective as well as efficient. A must listen to improve your productivity thro delegation and how to do it.

Would you believe that there are 14,000 Trillion(yes) ants in this planet ?The weight of ant on earth is equal human being and that the biggest colony of ant is 2.5 sq.km in Indonesia. Interesting facts. I was amazed!!!. Ants use swarm intelligence to work and as an individual are idiots!!! Hmmm.

Many Tamil movie viewers of the 1960s, would have seen Thangavelu playing as a comedian fraudster, (cheating/ compulsory liar as a employee in famous company, while unemployed) in the movie Kalyana parisu.(Wedding gift). I was reminded of that story when I read this Fortune article, on How Marc Dreir committed fraud to the extent of 700Mio$ as an impostor. Read this exciting, sad story as they say, truth is stranger than fiction.

Fortune magazine recently covered a practical article on how to land in tough times. A practical guide to be ready when things do go dreaded.!!

I was always feeling disgusted about IPL. So here is a blog on FAKE IPL that exposes the idiotic things happening there!!!. So my IPL stay away from TV has extended to 9 days and I haven't watched a single ball. Yes, also TV watching is less than 10 min. Keeping the idiot box away.

Wayne has done an excellent podcast on Telecommuting with Kate Lister, worth listening.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

KID's blog, Esamskriti, Virodhi, TRUE/ SLANT, Bumptop

Glad to be back to blogging after a week gap, as I was tied to running around for the completion of the upcoming apartment (Reniassance PARK III in Malleswarm) which require inputs from our side. Hopefully we look forward to moving in about 6 weeks time. ( A year behind schedule) Also, last week, I had lot of catch up on reading the magazines, journals so thought of giving update of the blog a miss.

Ok, Seeing me doing blogging, My Son wanted to give a shot at Blogging and has created his website at Blogspot.com. He did this on his own and did this when we were away on travel, so great to see some independent quick decisions. His blog is called Sharavansstance. I must admit that while I am a right wing, conservative, pro Republican, traditional, orthodox in my views, I have no way influenced him in what he writes and always insisted kids to be on their own sticking to basic values of humankind. He is delighted at having found his apparently lost FIFA 08 CD as well as Chelseas wins over the last 10 days so away on seventh heaven to come back to real world as well in his summer vacation mood. Incidentally this the link to my Daughter Radha's blog. She has been doing it for a while but I never did mention!!!.

Of Blog I must mention that My good frined and ex-collegue Aparna Sharma had sent a link to her husband's site on esmaskriti. It captures the essence of Indian culture. Here is the link.

We celebrated our Tamil new year on 14th April, the Tamil new year is called VIRODHI. Virodhi means ENEMY in Tamil. I just wondered how it would shape. As Tamil new year calendar is 60 year cycle, my friend Dilip looked at 1949 to what it was, and we found that the Indian constitution was written that year. Was it good or bad omen!!!! I will leave it to readers judge!!!!!??????.

My resolution not to spend not more than 10 minutes per day at the television is going great. I am in to the III week and yes it is not more than that. Yes, when I have dinner got to gulp as the family watches some serial, so that 15 Minutes don't count. I am staying successfully staying from the poisonous IPL for the second day. Hope god gives me the courage, resolute to go that way.

I read Walter Mosberg review on TRUE/ SLANT and I had subscribed to it. Great resource to see live journalism. Also try the Bumptop reviewed by him. I have instantly downloaded and installed in this laptop. A great view of the desktop.

Parliamentary Election process is on India and it will be a 5 week process. I guess at the end of the day, We wont have chads and Hopefully a clear mandate for a stable, progressive looking government which can make up for the 5 years we lost!!!.

Today, I had been to the inauguration of the POLAR BEAR ® Ice cream parlour opened by good friend near Hebbal. Ice creams have become all season item. This gave me a chance to catch up some of my ex-colleagues from Astra Zeneca after 12 years.

Ok, Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.

Regards
Karthik.

Copytrans, Transcend, MS MOUSE, Unhelpful souls.

I have to make this blog entry a brief one as I am in the midst of travel for personal family events over the last 3 days.

As indicated in my blog post last week, myself and my son should give kudos to our selves for successfully completing the IPOD copying back to Itunes. We did this thanks to the Software, COPYTRANS. It was one of the 19$, I had invested. I just installed and took a backup of the IPOD in the newly purchased Transcend 250 Gb hard disk as a backup Plan B. Then I added the IPOD library in to newly installed ITUNES and it copied all songs including play list(Though not the Smart play list) which I duplicated manually and deleted the play list. The only hitch is in doing all this IPOD needs to be restored and SYNC again. The job lasted almost 14 Hrs. (Despite copying rate of 20Mb/sec from my 2Gb RAM). I did goof up a bit in copying New Itunes library folder in an existing folder so it duplicated. So hard to delete all files there and reinstalled. (Yes My son did say to install in a new different path, I missed it by oversight). So a good job done.

As indicated I find Transcend back up portable disk a good one. I got at GLASGOW computers shop Brigade road. ( Got my Ipod docking station last year) Guy gives good discount and has all latest products. Like the cooling fan which Walt Mossberg discussed this week in WSJ was with him. I also purchased the cool MS ERGO Mouse. Worth the purchase, life turning for comfort. It gives a different sense to use mouse and addresses Ergonomic issues.

We had a frustrating experience, no wonder with whom you can guess, the government servants. For the travel we undertook, we need some change of plans which require some authorisation from railway reservation agents. Lalitha had taken a photocopy of her passport to submit, but had forgotten to take the original. She had the original ITIN card ( Called PAN Card). When she gave the copy to the officer at Bangalore cantonment reservation, the officer asked for original passport to check her identity, when she was told they would only want to see the passport to verify her identity or get photocopy of her PAN card. When Lalitha indicated that she is there in person and has one original to show, the argument fell on deaf ears. She couldn't find any photo copy shop nearby and had to spend 30 minutes to take a photo copy. Classic example of height of bureaucracy. I always felt 99% (I would assume many would agree)Indian government servants are unhelpful and frustrated souls. (Yes, My father was one!!!). Yes, the sad part is many private organisations, in recent past, in Multi national context are fast catching up this disease.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Karthik