Jitendra's Blog

The paradox of our time in history is that...

2011-12-26T18:59:00.002+05:30

Long back, someone forwarded an email to me...I thought it might be something witty (bush-laden jokes) or just waste-of-time forwards (‘send it to 10 people and you will get a laptop’). I wanted to delete it but don’t know why I opened it and started reading....and kept reading. The mail was not fun, neither waste of time. It was a nice text, written by unknown, touched me and forced me to think over what is happening all around and within.

Here is what I read. (I’ve very slightly modified the text for better reading)

The paradox of our time in history is that...

We have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour.

We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when, technology can bring this letter to you and when you can choose either to share this insight or to just hit delete. Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent. Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Thank you for reading this.

Wish you a very happy New Year!
:)

How can communication be global in the midst of local cultures?

2010-11-05T18:40:00.002+05:30

An expression is the interface of a human thought and human thoughts are global in nature hence require a globally accepted expression for the global masses else its scope will be limited to the respective culture.

In the middle of local cultures communication can be global in the same way as the local Indian curry and Italian pasta are able to spread their flavour globally or Ford’s car has won global customers or like Titanic movie is loved by an African villager and a New Yorker, or Van Gough’s painting equally understood and loved by a French and a Mongolian.

Every product is communicating something to the user. A food is communicating a taste, a car is communicating comfort of travel, a movie is communicating a dream or sense of belongingness, jeans is communicating a style.

These products became global because of certain qualities loved by humans globally –

Usability – How ‘usable’ the product is, i.e., how obvious the product’s usage is with respect to global user.
Simplicity – Simplicity is liked by most, if not all. And future products are getting simpler in all areas – automobiles, electronics, web apps, mobiles, management, politics Or how about a smiley :) ?
Purposeful - A deer feels tiger’s presence through monkey’s hint. Deer and Monkey have same purpose, e.g., Iranian public anger against the govt. through their tweets helped US govt.
Attractiveness – An attractive product like a Barbie doll is a global doll.
Reachability – The communication channel should be able to enhance the reachablity of message.

Local communication requires encapsulation of these elements so that the instruction/thought/expression hidden in the message should be ‘accessible’ globally.

Space Travel - Virgin Galactic brings the greatest adventure of all

2010-10-10T22:58:00.008+05:30

Have you ever dreamt of travelling in space, and seeing the earth and the stars from the high skies with naked eyes being there in the middle of skies?! Your dream can come true...Richard Branson the British baron has launched Virgin Galactic – world’s first commercial spaceline! Virgin Galactic will make the space travel possible for almost anyone (who has money to spend).

Unlike the airplanes which fly around 30,000 feet above sea level the virgin galactic spacecraft will fly at the altitude of 360,000 feet above sea level crossing the Karman line. The karman line is considered as the boundary between the earth’s atmosphere and the outer space. This is the point where eadth’s atmosphere starts getting thinner and thinner... This is the same altitude where Aurora is formed, wow we can fly even higher than auroras!

At this height imagine how the earth will look..the cities will appear like a pixel dot on the canvas of earth and the huge oceans and continents will be visible as you are standing in front of a huge globe in a dark room...could be scary for some people...but won’t be wrong to say it will be ‘heavenious’ trip for adventurous folks.

Years of research on re-usable spacecrafts and safe re-entry into earth has made this dream possible.

Designed by the legendry British architects Foster + Partners (who are already doing wonders in the middle east) the spaceport is based in New Mexico, USA and looks like shooting spot of a sci-fi movie...

Here is the official Virgin Galactic video which will show you the glimpses of space travel and the programme.

Cost? Well, such an adventure is priceless :) but still you will have to pay $200,000 to fly...what are you waiting for? If you have millions to spend then go book your journey.

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

2010-08-25T23:31:00.004+05:30

(By Tony Schwartz)

I've been playing tennis for nearly five decades. I love the game and I hit the ball well, but I'm far from the player I wish I were.

I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I've taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I've had a number of rapturous moments during which I've played like the player I long to be.

And almost certainly could be, even though I'm 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I've accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.

During the past year, I've read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I've also written one, The Way We're Working Isn't Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

We've found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Aristotle had it exactly right 2000 years ago: "We are what we repeatedly do." By relying on highly specific practices, we've seen our clients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.

Like everyone who studies performance, I'm indebted to the extraordinary Anders Ericsson, arguably the world's leading researcher into high performance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making the case that it's not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we're willing to work — something he calls "deliberate practice." Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000 hours of such practice as the minimum necessary to achieve expertise in any complex domain.

There is something wonderfully empowering about this. It suggests we have remarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that's also daunting. One of Ericsson's central findings is that practice is not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.

If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That's true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you've earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for our clients:

Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.
Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.
Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.
Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.
Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

I have practiced tennis deliberately over the years, but never for the several hours a day required to achieve a truly high level of excellence. What's changed is that I don't berate myself any longer for falling short. I know exactly what it would take to get to that level.

I've got too many other higher priorities to give tennis that attention right now. But I find it incredibly exciting to know that I'm still capable of getting far better at tennis — or at anything else — and so are you.

Google and the Myth of Free Time

2010-08-25T22:42:00.003+05:30

(By Chris Trimble — a well-known innovation speaker and consultant, is on the faculty of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.)

In my travels, I'm frequently asked to share my thoughts about Google's stated practice of encouraging individuals to spend 20 percent of their time pursuing innovative projects of their own inspiration.

It's not hard to understand where the question comes from. Many people are told routinely that innovation is everybody's job. And yet, the pressures of day-to-day operations are enormous. Who has time to innovate?

But my answer to their question about the 20 percent policy is always the same: It sounds expensive. Very expensive. For sake of argument, let's say 60 percent of the cost structure in your organization goes to salary and benefits. If you were to allocate 20 percent of each person's time for innovation, it would immediately cut 12 points from your margins. Twelve points! Even if you cut it down by extending the 20 percent policy only to a subset of employees, those are huge numbers.

Could it be worth it? Will the investment pay off in the long run?

Unfortunately, it probably won't. To see why, you have to recognize that innovation is a two-part adventure. First, you have to come up with a great idea. Second, you have to execute it. My co-author Vijay Govindarajan and I refer to that second step as the other side of innovation because it is often underappreciated or even completely overlooked.

The problem with the 20 percent policy is that it's likely to generate a great deal of activity on the idea side of innovation and very little on the execution side — the other side. Think about it. Just how much can one person accomplish with 20 percent of their time? They might be able to complete some very small projects, but if we're talking about anything significant — a new product, a new service, or a brand new businesses — then 20 percent of one person's time is just not much to work with.

Even if a few people come together organically to tackle the same challenge with a "group 20 percent," resources are still slim. Perhaps it's enough to articulate a great idea. Perhaps it's possible to even complete some research that supports the idea's viability. But what of the rest of the journey? The other side of innovation is out of reach.

The hidden risk in the 20 percent policy is that you end up generating a mountain of great ideas on paper that never become anything more than a mountain of great ideas on paper.

It's probably best to view Google's stated policy with at least some mild skepticism. Does Google really live up to its 20 percent ideal? I'm sure the company is delighted that their 20 percent philosophy has become so well known and so readily accepted as reality. It must be terrific for recruiting. But I think it is most likely that 20 percent time is an ideal the company aspires to but finds very difficult to live up to in practice, even with their seemingly boundless resources — a luxury most companies can't even imagine.

Fifteen facts about net neutrality

2010-08-25T22:17:00.002+05:30

Visualise your webpage for multiple screen resolutions

2009-12-20T22:47:00.032+05:30

Google has a nice tool to check how much area of your webpage appears on the browser without scrollbar on different screen resolutions. Its helpful to ensure that most important parts of your webpage are located in the sections which are visible 100% of the users.

To view your own Web site with this same visualization overlaid on it, simply type its URL into the "Enter URL here" textbox at the top of the window and click Go.

Go - http://browsersize.googlelabs.com.

An Android called 'Saya' - Japan's First Robot Teacher with Human Expressions

2009-05-23T17:41:00.003+05:30

Japan, home to almost half of the world's 800,000 industrial robots, has also developed models that can care for its fast-growing elderly population. However there is still a long way to make a truly robotic model.

Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi of the Tokyo University has created a humanoid robot which is capable of teaching students while also expressing a range of emotions.

She is named Saya and has been designed to look like as human a form as possible. Saya has 18 facial motors or say programmed movements which give her the ability to imitate some human emotions while speaking multiple languages. (Multi-tasking). She is able to express basic emotions like surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness.

Saya is capable of teaching Science and Technology and can be remotely controlled. She can do roll call and as well set tasks from textbooks.

She has also taken a class in a Tokyo school. She taught a science lesson to class of 10 year olds at Kudan Elementary School. And she proved a hit on her first day. Yay!

Saya has already worked as Receptionist and Secretary and the plan to program her further to personify as a school teacher already begun 5 years back.

Creating such humanoid robot teachers will definitely benefit Japanese schools where there is shortage of human teachers, says her father – Prof. Kobayashi.

That made-to-order robot will cost about 5 million Yen, he said.

See her video.

Flash Player Archive – All versions available for download

2009-05-23T15:59:00.013+05:30

Do you need previous Flash player versions to test your app? Are you struggling to find any of the old versions of Flash player? Don’t look here and there and get trapped into virus affected executables.

Here is the official page of Adobe Knowledge Base where all the Flash player releases are available to download (with debugger versions of a few of them). Click the link below.

URL: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/142/tn_14266.html

A Brief History of the Internet – From Then to Now, Wow!!

2009-05-02T15:06:00.003+05:30

The Internet has seen many transitions in the history. Traveling from one phase to the other, one form to another form no one knew it will take the shape of today and make the world so interactive!

I came across a lovely animated documentary created by Melih Bilgil, a German visual artist.

The best thing about this video is the simplicity which is the hardest thing to put in. Hats off Mr. Melih!

Here is the video, click the Play button to start.

Flash ComboBox misbehaves in child movie

2008-11-19T20:46:00.010+05:30

THE ISSUE

The Flash ComboBox component behaves abruptly when instantiated in a movie which is loaded further inside another movie. In other words, when we use a ComboBox in a child movie and load it in a parent movie, it stops dropping down. (However, you can move between the values using your keyboard.)

THE CAUSE

This is happening because of the _root references given in the component code. When the component receives events it executes code which somewhere refers _root. The _root here actually refers the root of the component container, the child movie in this case. While, when the child movie runs inside a parent movie, the same _root reference refers to the root of the parent container.

This results in the misbehaviour.

THE SOLUTIONS

Solution 1
Make sure you add the ComboBox component in the parent movie, not necessary to display on screen but it should be present in the library.

But this solution may not always work.

Solution 2
Add the following code to you child movie:

this._lockroot=true;

This limits the scope of _root and the code in child movie considers _root as the local root instead of the root of the parent.

[Keywords: combobox misbehaves, comobobox component, flash, combox issue, child-parent movie issue, combobox doesn't works]

burrp! usability

2007-08-04T15:19:00.000+05:30

Burrp! got a new look in April. Definitely it looks better now.

I spent some time with the website, checking user-friendliness & some usability and found some points that can be addressed.

Home page
No login facility is available; I can only login either after searching something or going to a city specific page. Why so? Are logins based on cities? If not then it should be available from the first page itself. I don’t know if the developers have some genuine reason for this.

Global > Font size and colors
Text is displayed in many different font sizes on a single page. Up to 7 different font sizes have been used. And in the Home page even the text is shown in seven different colors. I think there must be limited usage of font sizes and colors.

Global > Top navigation (Except the home page)

Advertisement Banner
The advertisement on the top disturbs reading especially in lower resolutions.

Top bar
The top bar is too small in height and the font sizes too are very small. While the other content has bigger fonts, such differences are torture for the end-users. The whole website has font-size issues, exception here is the Footer.

Global > Footer > Find
The ‘Find’ in footer must be an option available on the top somewhere.

Search > Restaurants List page
The “+” sign is not explanatory; it symbolizes some food reviews behind. Clicking the very small ‘+” sign is a torture when the page is populated by large headings and texts all over. Instead of “+” sign the whole “sky blue” row should be clickable.

Search > Restaurants List page > Restaurant page
One has to read the whole information in order to get the specific one; the information is not visually placed well.

Tags
Tags must be sized as per the user review and popularity. At present all the tags are of same size hence the user has to individually go through the reviews. If the tags are sized as per the best things available then users just need to look at the tag sizes and predict the popular food there.

Review
The restaurant review section looks like footer of the page unless the user does not look at the text written there. It should be shown in a different background color (other then white), at present it looks like the page is ended after blue background (i.e., the restaurant details).

If a restaurant has 8 reviews, with 4-8 lines of each review, who will read 6 (avg of 4-8) x 8 = 48 lines of reviews just to know the best thing in restaurant. Hence tags can provide fast information.

Menu (Food items menu)
Apart from the users’ review the restaurant menu must also be available. This menu should be appendable by users. So that he/she can add things/items even if they don’t want to say good or bad about any item they will be able to add items in the restaurant menus. This info can be helpful for users who want to know what’s available in the restaurant instead of going through the whole reviews.

Contact details
Fax, website, email, timings, branch details must also be given.

Review Summary
In short, a very few Indian startups have actually worked on the User Interfaces. Burrp look and feel is good and impressive. But it still seems like a website of the developer, it has to be a more like a user’s site.

Apple's Safari for Windows

2007-06-13T21:05:00.000+05:30

At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, Steven Jobs, the CEO announced that they will make their Safari web browser available for Windows.

Steve said, the Safari would have double the performance capability of the rival Internet Explorer.

It seems Apple is now more confident of coming out of its backyard and looking for new clients from “Windows” probably through applications like browsers, players (?) etc that run on Windows and have a taste of Apple.

Late but clever business strategy!

They have started with a test version of Safari and I bet there will be many bugs and errors in this test version. It is available to download on Apple’s website.

Here is a list of features mentioned on the Safari page:-

1. Blazing Performance
2. Elegant User Interface (Impressive)
3. Easy Bookmarks
4. Pop-up Blocking
5. Inline Find
6. Tabbed Browsing
7. SnapBack (Good feature)
8. Forms AutoFill
9. Built-in RSS
10. Resizable Text Fields
11. Private Browsing (Good)
12. Security

Windows Safari will also help Apple to generate money from every Google search requested from its browser.

No doubt, they will bite market share of Internet Explorer and will also create worries for the FireFox and Opera browsers. But certainly this all will take time.

The popularity of Safari will also have positive impacts on iPhone. Steve is asking Apple software developers to develop Internet applications based on web standards like xHTML and AJAX for iPhone. The iPhone will have capability to run such applications.

Coming out of the personal computers to the World Wide Web it will provide greater scope to the developers. And with the help of Safari browser these applications could be accessed by any Mac, Windows pc and iPhone devices! And certainly Windows Safari will play an important role.

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

2007-06-02T18:33:00.001+05:30

I couldn't stop my self to post this excellent video on my blog. It displays portraits of women in the history of 500 years of western art.

The best part is the way a portrait is morphed into the next one. They are from several periods of art, from Renaissance to the modern art, from oil paints to sketches...from Da Vinci to Picasso.

The portraits also express the feelings of women and the morphing transforms this feeling from one to the other.

Wow! I have't seen anything better then this. Here it is (Please click the Play button).

Keymapping Issue in Firefox and Flash

2007-06-01T20:54:00.017+05:30

THE ISSUE

With almost every European language settings when we run a Flash movie with an input box in Firefox, a weird problem occurs. That is, the [@] and [“] symbols produced by the keyboard are swapped on screen. When we type [@] symbol, it shows [“] double quote symbol and vice-versa.

This is in case of UK English. While in French, German, Spanish, Latin, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Greek and other language settings many characters that are specific to these languages are displayed incorrectly.

This is annoying when what you type is not what you see. One of our clients shouted on us considering this as our fault. He thought there is some blah in our Flash movie. I was surprised to know the issue and very keen to solve it.

THE CAUSE

I presumed this is due to some problem in Firefox as the issue has nothing to do with ActionScript and Flash input box. Later, I found that the Firefox is actually not reading European language mappings correctly. It works absolutely well with US English (...and, a note for all Firefox lovers that there is no such issue in Internet Explorer).

Later, I started reviewing the HTML code and found that when I remove window mode parameter "wmode" from both "object" and "embed" tags, it worked well! (See solution 1 below for detail).

This will solve the issue but with limitations. Firefox developers should "fire-fix" this bug permanently.

Below are a few solutions, use them as per your need and please do tell me if the problem still persists or you find any other solution!

THE SOLUTIONS

Solution 1
Remove wmode from <object> and <embed> tags.

<object>
<param name="..." value="..."/>
~~<param name="wmode" value="transparent"/>~~
<embed src=".... ~~wmode="transparent"~~></embed>
</object>

This has to be done in all the following cases:

1. When simple <object> and <embed> tags are used in HTML or XHTML.
2. When object and embed tags are written in an external JavaScript file.
3. When SWFObject is used.

Or in any other way, doesn't matter, remove the window mode till Firefox resolves this.

Solution 2
If you do not want to remove the "wmode" then keep the value of this parameter as "normal" but never keep it “transparent".

<object>
<param name="..." value="..."/>
<param name="wmode" value="normal"/>
<embed src=".... wmode="normal"></embed>
</object>

Solution 3
Solve this programmatically. Trap the pressed key and replace the character with what is required. For, e.g., If user presses ["] key then trap the key and assign "@" to the input box in ActionScript. and vice-versa. Treat other European characters similarily.

I haven't coded this yet but this will work. If you need the code, mail jitendramrATgmailDOTcom. I may help you if I get time.

Solution 4
If your issue is limited to email address input then don't ask users to type in the [@] symbol. Divide the email input box in to two and connect them with an [@] symbol as shown below.

@

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Adobe team has acknowledged this bug but closed the error after concluding that this is an external bug and is purely related to Firefox. (http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-479)

Firefox has also acknowledged this. Masayuki Nakano of Mozilla, Japan is resolving the bug and the current status of the bug is set to "assigned". (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=347185)

[Keywords: keymapping, key mapping, flash, firefox, transparent issue, @ symbol, at symbol, key input bug, wmode, ]

burrp! is burping...

2007-05-26T20:11:00.000+05:30

Burrp! is burping with popularity. Now it’s gaining reputation not only in Mumbai but in other metros as well.

Two new versions have been launched for Bangalore and Kolkata and a few more for Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Goa and Delhi are in pipeline.

They are also expanding the local stuff to books, cinemas, theatres, art galleries etc. And already launched a lifestyle online magzine called blah.

I am sure its soon going to have big fat popularity and business interests.

When an end-user feels that his/her views/choices have been counted, considered important and also published on the site, it usually attracts them to come up with more reviews. And imagine what happens if they get money as well! I was wondering if

Burrp! can pay money to the users per review per day basis. They can further think how to implement this logic in order to make it market friendly and acceptable.

Other things may be to:

Improve web site usability
Provide more details about places other than address and phone numbers, like timings, website, emails etc.
Can also provide Google/Yahoo! sort of maps to locate the places.
For Mumbai users, the bus routes can also be provided in order to make it more informative and friendly.
Improve tag system.
Eventually they can also invite the business owners to come up with discounts, special proposals, upcoming events information, books, or to write reviews, or test thier products before launch etc for burrpers! (Don’t know whether it is a good idea).

I am testing the usability and friendliness of the burrp website, will come back soon with my review. See you then.

What's in name?

2007-05-26T17:28:00.007+05:30

I read an interesting article on how today’s big electronics and computer giants got their names.

Here is the simpler version of what I read.

ORACLE
The prophets of RDBMS, Larry Ellison and Bob Miner worked on a consulting project for CIA, USA, where they were asked to use a new SQL language white papered by IBM. The code name of this project was “Oracle”. The project was in due course expired but Larry and Bob took chance to take their start-up work in the market and they use the same word “Oracle” to name their new RDBMS engine.

REDHAT
The company founder Marc Ewing was given a cap with Red and White strips by his grandfather. People would turn to him to solve their problems and he was famous as the guy in Red hat. Eventually when he founded his company he named it Redhat.

YAHOO!

The word Yahoo! was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.

GOOGLE
The name Google is a spelling error. The founders of the site, Larry page and Sergey Brin, actually wanted to register “Googol” but they communicated this orally and then it was by mistake registered as “Google”.

MICROSOFT
The word Microsoft was coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was “shift deleted” later.

HOTMAIL
When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, Jack Smith (another founder) tried all kinds of names ending in “mail” and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters “html” - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casings.

APPLE
Apple was the favorite fruit of the founder Steve Jobs. He was running three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name.

However, in 1978, Apple Corps, the Beatles-founded holding company and owner of their record label, Apple Records, filed suit against Apple Computer for trademark infringement. The suit finally got settled in 1981 with an undisclosed amount being paid to Apple Corps.

SUN
The company name is derived from the initials for Stanford University Network.

SAP
The German gaint SAP stands for "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing." The name comes from the founding members, four ex-IBM employees who used to work in the ‘Systems/Applications/Projects’ group at IBM.

CISCO
Cisco is short for San Francisco. It has also been suggested that it was "CIS-co": Computer Information Services was the department at Stanford University where the founders worked.

INTEL
Founders Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company ‘Moore Noyce’ but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym for INTegrated ELectronics.

SONY
Sony owes its name to the Latin word “Sonus” and an American slang “Sonny” that means a bright youngster. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation that was same in any language.

So it is now a 50 years old “bright American youngster”.

MOTOROLA
Founders Paul and Joe Galvin came up with this name when their company started manufacturing car radios. Many early manufacturers of phonographs, radios and other audio gadgets in early 20th century used the suffix “ola”, that means “Hello” in Latin.

As the company was focused on making automotive electronics, the name was meant to express the idea of “sound” and “motion” and hence the word “Motorola” was coined.

XEROX
This is taken from the Greek word “Xer” which means “dry”. As they produced the world’s first plain paper copier, the name Xerox was coined.

HEWLETT PACKARD
This is quite interesting; the founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Unmilited storage! Yahoo!

2007-05-19T18:50:00.000+05:30

After Rediff India announced the unlimited mail storage. Yahoo! too offers the same.

They have already begun with this offer and it will be soon available for it's world wide users.

The Yahoo! Mail VP, John Kremer said, "Yahoo! Mail has become an essential part of people's lives over the past decade and people around the world are increasingly sharing more of their lives online. By providing unlimited e-mail storage, we're continuing to build upon the industry's best Web mail service."

This upgrade will be available under both Existing Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Beta versions.

I wonder, how things have changed in the past 6 years. From traditional 2 Megs of mail storage, it went upto 2 Gigas with Web 2 and now its unlimited. Let's see how Web 3 transforms the Internet communication.

Keep saving!

Google SWITCH, a rumor?

2007-05-11T18:35:00.000+05:30

Google washed out the rumors of their first mobile phone - SWITCH.

They do not have any plans to SWITCH to hardware “at the moment” (now what they meant with ‘at the moment’? Are they going to do it later sometimes?).

Google says they are happy with providing software services, the past few acquisitions were aimed to enrich and expand their mobile services.

So grab some coffees and continue surfing.

Color your Google Home

2007-03-24T18:24:00.000+05:30

Google is offering new themes for the personalized Home page, there are six in total. Simple yet colorful. Far better then what Yahoo! and Live are offering.

The good thing is that the outdoor colors/graphics/characters of the themes dynamically change as per the local time and weather conditions.

For example, themes will show a sunrise or sunset as per the local times and the characters will hold umbrellas if it's raining.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get a theme for your page...

Some pics:

SWITCH on! Google trying to say Hello! (?)

2007-03-24T17:54:00.000+05:30

The news is in the air that Google is making a device similar to Blackberry.

The probable features will be:-

1. Running C++ at the core
2. Operating system Bootstrap
3. Java
4. Proposes VoIP!

And the phone will be called SWITCH.

It is said that the programs running the operations are stored on the network. It sounds too advanced. Perhaps a new network protocol comes up with this. Wow!

One of the Google Heads in Europe - Isabel Aguilera, confirmed on March 15 2007, that Google is developing a mobile phone.

While Google USA spokeswoman didn’t clear the picture with her ambiguous statement. “Mobile is an important area for Google and we remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide. However, we have nothing further to announce.”

Preparations

Google is partnering with Samsung and Orange to build this phone. It was evident in January when Google and Samsung entered into a partnership to pack the mobile versions of Google Maps, Search and G-Mail on some Samsung phones.

They have already made three acquisitions to obtain the technology and expertise and the skill to produce and strategize their product.

Google acquired a mobile software maker company called Andriod in 2005, and afterwards in 2006, Google acquired Reqwireless, a mobile application company. Skia was the third acquisition by Google. This Company produced Portable Graphics Engine that helps rendering 2D graphics on handheld devices.

Now collaborating with Samsung and Orange they are perhaps making a ground to SWITCH it on.

As of now the phone model is not known but here are a few guesses:

According to the present situation we can only speculate. The actual picture will take form in a few months.

Bang - A - Lore

2006-12-25T19:07:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I received a forward from my friend which tells some good points about the Silicon Valley - Bangalore. Good things to know about the city, but I have stroked the words where I am not in agreement with, see what it says...

Bangalore has the impeccable record of highest growth within a span of 20 Years.
Bangalore has highest number of pubs in Asia.
Bangalore has highest number of cigarette smokers in India.
Bangalore has the highest number of software companies in India, ~~around 212, followed by Hyderabad - 108, Pune - 97~~. Hence called the Silicon Valley of India.
Bangalore has 21 engineering colleges, which is highest in the world in a given city. Bangalore University has 57 Engineering colleges affiliated to it, which is highest in the world.
Bangalore is the only city in the world to have commercial and defense Airport operating from the same strip.
Bangalore has highest number of public sectors and government Organizations in India.
Bangalore University has highest number of students going abroad for higher studies taking the first place from IIT-Kanpur.
Bangalore has only 48% of local population (i.e.Kannadigas) .Hence a true cosmopolitan ~~with around 25% Tamilians, 14% Telugites, 10% Keralites, 8% Europeans, and 6% a mixture of all races.~~
Bangalore police has the reputation of being second best in India after Delhi.
Bangalore has the highest density of traffic in India.
Bangalore has the highest number of 2-wheelers in the world.
Bangalore is considered the fashion capital of east comparable to Paris.
Bangalore has produced the maximum international sportsmen in India for all sports ahead of even Mumbai & Delhi.
Bangalore has produced the maximum number of scientists considered for Nobel Prize nominations.
Bangalore has produced the highest number of professionals in USA almost 60% of the Indian population abroad is from Bangalore (except Gulf).
Bangalore is famous for THREE: Software Professionals, Girls and Dogs.
Bangalore is famous for its dog bites, an average of 12 people are bitten by stray dogs per MINUTE somewhere in Bangalore!!!

Also, do remember, The Bangalore is now Bangaluru.

Adobe Kuler: Explore, Create & Share Colors

2006-12-01T16:38:00.000+05:30

Sharing text and fotos are old stories, now you can share colors.

Here comes the first of its kind application from Adobe. Small, Light, Sweet and Flashy – The Adobe Kuler (say it Color) built in Flash and Actionscript 3.0 is a web based application which helps you create color themes for your websites and applications (or your DTP job, or just for fun, or your favorite color combos, or any thing else you can think of).

You can create and save them (If you have Adobe ID), share with other people, or keep them personal. Get inspire from themes of other users, or do something different.

A variety of color models are available to chose colors from, these include the RGB, CMYK and LAB, you can also find the HEX values of colors, so if you are in hurry to find a good color for you web you can get if from here.

Five modes have been provided to produce color themes - Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Compound, Shades and Custom mode

All the modes have one base color.

In analogous mode, the base color is the center of the other four colors. On the color wheel you define positions of all five colors using their respective pointers, finally drag the base color point to get the color variations.

In Monochromatic mode, all the colors belong to the same hue, what can vary is the intensity.

Use Triad mode to produce themes of contrasting colors.

Top create a theme of opposite colors that complement each other being opposites, use Complementary theme.

In Compound mode, you can select colors from multiple hues.

Create nice shades of a single color using Shades mode.

All of the above modes can be customized using the Custom mode.

You can have 1 to 5 colors in a theme.

The color themes can also be downloaded as .ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files that can be deployed in various Adobe products (up to CS versions but doesn’t work with CS2 products, this may be fixed in the later versions).

I am expecting to see a much more robust application in the upcoming versions.

Thank you Adobe!

System requirements for Kuler:
+ Adobe Flash Player 9.0.28.0+ (Win/Mac), 9.0.21.55+ (Lin)
+ Web browser
+ High speed internet recommended

Try it here:
http://kuler.adobe.com/

Kuler pics:

New skin for Microsoft website

2006-10-28T15:18:00.000+05:30

Soon we will see the all new look Microsoft homepage that was awaited since a long time.

Launched for testers at http://preview.microsoft.com

As before it’s sprayed with Blue, but a nicer one this time.

The background image looks like diluted ink flowing on the glass...

With content images in opposite colours

Navigation on top and the footer in black background gives a good control over the page

Left navigation is already implemented as a trial in the current version…perhaps to test and to make people handy with this kind of “hovereading”. Needs less clicks and fit more content

Will be finally launched probably in November, 06 or early January, 07

And yes, the page is centralised this time

The home page is 400Kb(11 Javascript files alone are contributing 30% of this)

Lack of whiteness disturbs long readings…as it is one of the most visited websites, it should reserve some whiteness, especially behind the reading content...

But most likely, Microsoft will launch the final skin with some new inputs that were not present in the preview. Let’s see.

Here are a few snapshots: