And in the end, it just turned out to be a bad day. Just a bad day.

Things come and go, ideas come and go - as grown ups say.

~ Ankur.

Better..

It's been a long long time.

And finally I feel better. Much much better.

~ Ankur.

Random..

News and Analysis..

The Other Side..

Yes, please?

Golden..

Hide and Seek..

Insignificant me (or Technorati sucks?)..

Now when I usually start with a new project, I invariably search on Technorati before Google, to check if some bloggie dude has written some wise words on my subject. I have found success very rarely though, and have always wondered why.

So when I was spending some time on Technorati today, I tried to test how extensive its search is. So I took a few strings from the posts I have made in the past few days and searched on it. And well, it seems Technorati doesn't know me at all. I do not figure anywhere with them. And I went till the last page every time. And mind you, I am a registered user with them, all with my blog claimed and all. And still, still my friends, it does not recognize me at all.

Why, Technorati? Why why? Am I utterly insignificant to you? Or is it that you suck big time? I tried searching strings from some good (I mean well read) blogs, and again it turned blank results.

And I used to be so sure that it covered a whole lot of blogosphere. So, is it that blogosphere still remains largely unexplored? Reasons, anybody?

~ Ankur.

I need more important things in life..

I have started to blog more these days. And I read more of others' blogs too. So is it because I have more time now in life to do that? Do I have a relatively relaxed time these days? No, not at all. It's very contrary to that. I am very cruched these days at work, from where I normally blog. In fact, I am staying here at work, so late at night, because I have to finish off a very important assignment by tomorrow.

So why am I sitting here and blogging? It is because my project is the most important thing right now on my mind. And hence, I am not doing it. I need something more important to be able to finish this off in time.

Don't understand all of this? Then you should read this thing on Structured Procrastination.

~ Ankur.

Achievement for the day..

I clocked under 5 minutes on today's Sudoku - my best timing yet :D

I admit, this one is really simple. But, whatever.

Yo!

~ Ankur.

Harold and Becky..

So I am doing some research on the US landline telephone industry, and I come across this. All my research summarized in this one hilarious blog entry.

To provide some background -

ILECS are the few large dominant telecom companies in the US with established networks. They rule. CLECs are small low-priced regional players with spots of network here and there, which even they have trouble to find. The Wannabes. Now, the '96 Telecom Act in the US asks ILECs to provide long-distance fiber to CLECs at slashed rates to bring competition in the market, and end the monopoly of these giants. Everyone hates each other - CLECs say ILECs do not cooperate, charge more, and blah. ILECs say it is forced competition, against free market, and other blah. And in this scenario, here goes - Harold and Becky's Excellent Telephone Adventure. An excerpt -

Over time, I speak to two Verizon vice presidents and get a phone call from the President of Verizon Maryland. They assure me that the fault lies with the evil CLEC, which misfiled the order, gave them the wrong address, wrong time zone, and possibly, used magic to shift their tech to another dimension. However, they promise that, assuming Cavalier does not join forces with Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden (which, Verizon tells me, CLECs have been known to do), they will have a tech out on April 7.

A long, but equally rewarding read. If patience really pays, it's here.

And on a slightly different and thoughtful note, I think one can relate Project Managers to this -

I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food.

Yeah, Bruce.

~ Ankur.

Afterlife Telegrams..

So a certain Mr. Paul Kinsella has this great idea - a sure winner for creativity, if not for VCs. And it goes by the name Afterlife Telegrams.

So what does he do? Quite obvious - he sends telegrams for you to the dead people. How? Well, he gets hold of a messenger - actually a terminally ill person (basically, a person who you're sure will die) - and the messenger memorizes your message, dies, goes to heaven, finds your guy, and delivers the message. Neat.

And Washington Post already has him interviewed, and provides a great introduction it too -

Every so often someone gets an idea so brilliant and original that it becomes an instant phenomenon, guaranteeing its creator immeasurable wealth and a place in the pantheon of entrepreneurial geniuses. And then there are ideas like Paul Kinsella's.

Well, people do have their reservations about the success of the idea, and Paul is yet to find his first client - he already has a messenger ready, though! Excerpts from the interview [via Washington Post]:

Q: There are about 18 times as many dead people from all of time as there are people living on Earth today, not counting dead Neanderthals and Australopithecans, who might well have souls, albeit really scruffy ones. So the population of the afterlife would be at least 18 times larger than that of Earth. What makes you think that your messenger could even find the right person?

Paul: That's a good point. If it's all random and chaotic, that's gonna stop him. But we would hope that they have worked out some sort of registry.

Q: What if the Hindus are right and we are reincarnated as cows? And you'd have all these cows with elaborate AfterlifeTelegrams.com messages they are contractually obligated to deliver to other cows, but they have no way to do it. Imagine the frustration. Isn't that cruel?

Paul: I admit reincarnation might screw things up.

Q: What guarantee can you give that the terminally ill person won't be a prankster and deliver a subversive message, causing great consternation among the dead? For example, let's say the paid-for message is, "Mom, I love you." But the delivered message is, "Dad says he slept with your sister."

Paul: We will seek messengers of high moral character.

Absolutely! This guy rocks.

~ Ankur.

Bloggingdom is here..

The Bloggers Have Arrived

Log on to your Orkut, now!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time..

After a long long time I managed to pick up a book and finish it off within a week. And it goes with the name The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

And this entry is not here because this has already happened. But that's immaterial, anyway.

So, as I was saying, the book is a great read. And innovatively imaginative. Noone has made me solve maths problems in a novel ever before! The narrative of Christopher Boone, the protagonist in the book, reminds one of Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye, as well as Vernon 'Gregory' Little.

Must read if you are even slightly free.

~ Ankur.

Animal Instinct..

Suddenly I feel a surge of enthusiasm in life that I haven't felt for long. And it is all because of Cranberries and this song of theirs -

Suddenly something has happened to me
As I was having my cup of tea
Suddenly I was feeling depressed
I was utterly and totally stressed
Do you know you made me cry
Do you know you made me die

And the thing that gets to me
Is you'll never really see
And the thing that freaks me out
Is I'll always be in doubt
It is a lovely thing that we have
It is a lovely thing that we
It is a lovely thing, the animal
The animal instinct

So take my hands and come with me
We will change reality
So take my hands and we will pray
They won't take you away
They will never make me cry, no
They will never make me die

And the thing that gets to me
Is you'll never really see
And the thing that freaks me out
Is I'll always be in doubt

The animal, the animal, the animal instinct in me
It's the animal, the animal, the animal instinct in me
It's the animal, it's the animal, it's the animal instinct in me.

Very contrary to the lyrics, I have instantly started to feel just great! It's amazing, what music can do to you.

Life, as we know it, is really strange.

~ Ankur.

Crib session (one more)..

Of late, this blog has assumed a totally different role in my life. When I started with this, it was all happy and cheerful. And now all I do here is vent. But that's the way it is.

So I do not post anything interesting now because I do not read anything these days, and as a result do not come across anything interesting. I don't write about anything happening because it seems nothing happens now in life.

I think I can attribute most of it to the extended hours I spend at work. That just kills me - in a manner of speaking. Lifestyle issues, which seemed such an elusive thought, have cropped in big time. And when all this is happening around me, I get to read this -



Great.

~ Ankur.

Job dissatisfaction..

Job dissatisfaction has finally started to creep in - the fact that it took 10 months to do that, is a wonder.

Business research is highly dissatisfying. You're never doing your own thing. And rightly so, since you do not have the expertise to do it anyway. It doesn't help even if you do it for years together. What functional expertise do you develop? - nothing seemingly tangible. Your domain expertise is useless. Because what do you know? - a highly superficial account of what has been happening, and what others say will happen. Research is a highly misleading term in business research. After a while you start craving for some real understanding of what you are dealing with.

Therefore, there is an urge to go back to the academia, and start from first principles. But with the given track record, I have my own reservations on how long I will survive in a technically inclined setup. Moreover, will that experience make me come back to the same place - would I not want to do something more worthwhile after that? Which brings me to the question - do I actually wish to do what I am doing, in the long run? If not, what do I wish to do? I think I wish to be extremely knowledgable about something and do work - any work - related to that. If it has to do with the larger picture, then great. Yes, I think that would be a fair description of what I would like to do.

There is another thing I dislike a lot. The problem of people doing perception management rather than actual work. The focus is so much more in doing well in the short run, that learning is being sidelined completely. All around I witness people just managing the 10 parameters to get a better rating, to leave a better impression. The system of meritocracy seems to be more of a pretence now. Moreover, so early in one's career, there is an equal focus on people management. I really would like to just not deal with that for some time in my career.

I don't know where this is going, but I think you get the idea. Perhaps the stuff I have written here are just the feelings for a short while, and may not last for long, and my views may turn topsy turvy very soon. I hope that happens. I hope I reach the topsy turvy island soon.

~ Ankur.

Secret Garden..

There's a certain melancholy that always seeps in with the hours of the twilight. The dusk brings a stillness with itself, a slight haze. Maybe it is also because of the Springsteen songs that I am listening to. They've always made me calm and pensive - like now.

I leave you with a photograph of from my institute at dusk, and a few lines from Springsteen's 'Secret Garden'..

She'll let you in her heart
If you got a hammer and a vise
But into her secret garden, don't think twice

You've gone a million miles
How far'd you get to that place where
You can't remember and you can't forget

She'll lead you down a path
There'll be tenderness in the air
She'll let you come just far enough
So you know she's really there
She'll look at you and smile
And her eyes will say
She's got a secret garden
Where everything you want
Where everything you need
Will always stay a million miles away..

- Bruce Springsteen

A million miles away..

~ Ankur.

I want to break free..

I have gotten into the viscious circle of not posting anything, which increases the threshold to post, and hence I do not post anything - while I would like to do that.

I feel something like this -

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I want to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I've fallen in love

It's strange but it's true
I can't get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free, baby
Oh how I want to break free,
Oh how I want to break free

But life still goes on
I can't get used to, living without, living without,
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own
So baby can't you see
God knows, gods know, gods know
I've want to break free

- Queen

Soon. Very soon. Someway. Somehow.

~ Ankur.

Knowledge knowledge..

The key to survival success in a knowledge-intensive industry is the knowledge carried around by the people in the organization. Granted, this would be true more for a consulting firm, and less for one which deals with only business research. Yet, this could be the differentiating factor between success and breakthrough for KPO firms in the long run. And perhaps most players in this business are not focusing on the knowledge development aspect as much as they should. Firms tackle this issue by making focused groups, but that is more of an exercise to ease operations than with the intent of providing an environment to learn. These companies now need to provide its people with the freedom, opportunity and encouragement to learn and gather knowledge in these focused environments.

Take Google’s case [via Chad at Infoworld]:

Quite simply, the Google philosophy can be expressed in five general principles: Work on things that matter, affect everyone in the world, solve problems with algorithms if possible, hire bright people and give them lots of freedom, and don’t be afraid to try new things. As a general practice, Google also requires that its engineers spend 20 percent of their time working on personal technology projects unrelated to their primary projects.

Google Suggest was one such project. And if I am not wrong Google Maps was one 20% too. But can the Google 20% time principle be applied in this context? The answer is a big no. With the rate of growth of the KPO industry, that’s a bit too high. But, maybe we can manage a 90-10 principle. Devoting 10 percent of one’s time to a project of related personal interest sounds good and essential. I’d rather go on to say that this is the need of the hour.

I am going to recommend this to my firm.

~ Ankur.

I can't think of a title..

This is one of those posts which have no real purpose, except to let go of the mental barrier of not being able to make an entry, and to cross the threshold.

I have been away for a while, and life has been slightly dull off late. Meanwhile, have got an entirely new machine at workplace, which is very smooth. But that doesn't change much in life.

On a contemplative note, life sucks big time if you don't make any effort. I think I need to make efforts to enjoy life.

~ Ankur.

Pause..

Sitting here on my desk, I suddenly have this sinking feeling - Lost in a herd of people, whom you don't know, whom you don't even wish to know, just there because you're afraid to be anywhere else.

Time flies by, and you are just left thinking about all the good things that you think will happen. People, places, and things you really cared about just go on with their lives. You expect everyone, everything to wait for you, and miss you. But they don't. Everyone has to go on, the world never stops. You are always under the impression that you still care about everyone, everything that you always cared about. But you get so lost in things, which you don't even know for sure are what you wish for, that you never have the time to think about the very same people, the very same things. And you don't even know if you can say that you care. Then slowly you realize that there's a strange gap, with even the people and things closest to you, and it just keeps widening. You are afraid of trivial things like what will you say and what will you type, that you never even make a call, never drop a mail, and never make a visit. You wish to congratulate everyone on what they have achieved, you wish to share with them the sadness that they've gathered, but you just can't. You think that everyone has moved on, leaving you behind. And you never know if they feel the same.

Life just moves on. And sometimes it goes quite a distance before you realize.

And even then, nothing changes.

~ Ankur.

I Love Bloglines..?!

Now, it seems that Bloglines and Ask Jeeves guys came to know that I curse them every now and then. It also seems that they've decided to make me happy in some way or the other, if unable to do that through their service. I received this mail today from a certain Mr. Paul Loeffler -

Dear Ankur,

Congratulations on being one of the first 200 people to email Ask Jeeves about receiving a free "I love Bloglines" t-shirt. We will send your t-shirt to the address that you have provided on March 14, so you should be receiving it in the near future.

If you have any questions/comments, feel free to let us know.

Kind regards,

Paul Loeffler (Fellow Bloglines Enthusiast)
Ask Jeeves, Inc.

Man, they're calling me a Fellow Bloglines Enthusiast :| There's actually nothing like a free lunch. And ya - I did send the mail for the free t-shirt. Whatever.

[Learning for the day: Semantics]

~ Ankur.

Creative Commons..

If you have an eye for detail, you might have observed a new button that has appeared at the bottom of the sidebar of this blog. It says 'Some Rights Reserved' and has been lying there at the bottom for a few days now. This button links to a partial copyright license that I've got from Creative Commons.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit, offering a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists, to build a layer of reasonable copyright. They have built upon the "all rights reserved" of traditional copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright.

Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control — a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which "all rights reserved" (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation — once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally — have become endangered species.

Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare "some rights reserved."

Thus, a single goal unites Creative Commons' current and future projects: to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules.

[from Creative Commons]

Till about a week or two back they had indexed all the webpages that have linked to a license from them, and believed it to be around 5 million. But after it's birthday party, Yahoo did the same and found to everyone's amusement that the number is nearly 10 million! I think everyone should get a license from them. It makes absolute sense. Perfectly absolute sense.

~ Ankur.

Firefox, who?

So I realized that my blog appears all haywire in Internet Explorer, while it's perfect to look at through Firefox. IE cannot even interpret all the colours I use for my blog template - which is very awful in my opinion. And it brings me to my request - please use Firefox. I even thought of a subtitle for my blog: "The Life and Times of Mine - best viewed in Firefox!" Unfortunately, this template doesn't have a subtitle thing, so I couldn't have all that fun.

Anyhow, so I went to one of the IT guys here at workplace, and asked - "Hi. Why don't we have Firefox?". And imagine what he replied - "Firefox? What's that?" Whoa! That's IT for you! Anyway, I said - "It's a browser. It has tabs." Bam this came - "Tabs?". Then I just blurted - "It's free." and started back, but I think I heard him saying - "It won't support our applications." I was like - "We are a business research firm - what applications?!"

No wonder Internet Explorer still has nearly 90 percent market share! But it's falling, and Firefox is increasing fast. Wonder what's up with Opera people - someone said they were ahead of their time! And opera was cool, back in CC :)

By the way, the IT guys here are real nice people, and if I just push a little, we might even have Firefox (at least for me). Should I, then?

*Lights fade off and the spot is on the protagonist, who contemplates life and its meaning*

~ Ankur.

Long time..

It's been a while since I last blogged, as lots of stuff kept me busy. Mostly work - have had an insane last week, and now plan to bring some sanity back to life again. And while I was away, the following happened:

1. I bumped into Hello and Picasa. Both these utilities absolutely rock! Fully recommended to all the people clicking their way to glory with their digicams, and also to those who wish to post images to their blogs.

2. Yahoo turned 10. And idiots, they gave out free icecream to everyone except this big user list in India. Even to Alaska! Now those are the people who can open their mouths and dive towards the ground anytime for free icecream. What a waste!

3. I came across this guy with this blog. An amusing read - his blog, if you go bottom up.

4. I found out that a starter drum kit is for about 8 to 10 grands, but presently that's out of the question for me. Also I think I'm trying to take up too many things together, and that I will have to be selective now in my aspirations. So I think till the time I am done with the digicam, the drums will wait. But I might still do something about starting the learning curve.

I think that's about it for now.

~ Ankur.

The first photo session..

I went for my first photo session today. And I liked it.





~ Ankur.

Updates..

Digicam boy is also here now. And making good use of it, this is the photograph of the 'oh so talked about, now never mention it again' laptop:



And here is the cool red reebok bag to carry it around (or rather to 'keep it secret, keep it safe'):



And if you can really appreciate the art, you can see a glimpse of the cam within this logo:



Cool.

Apart from all this, commenting becomes friendlier on Blogger. Extremely easy now. That's what I like - enhancement of one's product on a regular basis. That's why I like Blogger over LJ, but that discussion had been closed a long time ago.

~ Ankur.

Online Collaboration..

Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia, is a wiki, or - a website that not only allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content already present there. 'Wiki' also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website.

[from Wikipedia]

What this means is that not only can one access the information on such a site, or append to it, he/she can even edit whatever content is already there, and that too in real-time. I was completely ignorant to the above fact, when I was using Wikipedia all this while. I never noticed the 'edit this page' button at the top of all the pages at Wikipedia (Ok, not all, but they have only the basic pages as non-editable). So if you search for IIT Bombay, and notice that there is a section on distinguished alumni, and out of the blues you feel that Kanwal Rekhi also deserves a mention there, you can add his name on the page then and there, as well as add an entirely new page with some information on him. This is what I did right now, to test the system, and just for kicks! You may have a look :)

Now, the success of Wikis is a very interesting phenomenon. When you allow anyone to edit the content in real-time and without screening, chances are that people would be more busy spoiling what is already there, than doing some good and adding value. This would be particularly true in the initial phases of the development of such an online collaboration. And even though they have monitoring systems, which can ban malicious IPs temporarily or permanently, it still is not tough to do harm. And the fact that such websites have survived such abuse, is great. And Wikipedia in English stands today as the largest Wiki in the world.

Overall, a great concept. Letting people constructively collaborate in a very effective manner. Nice.

~ Ankur.

Cool Thing..

Came across this thing too today - You Send It.

Now send upto 1 Gb documents through email. Ok, not actually send, but it works equally well. No passwords to share, no software to install, no accounts to create, and no full mailboxes - as they put it. Cool utility - short and quick interface.

Seems like I'll get all the songs I need now :)

~ Ankur.

Random Browsing 1..

Links for the day:

1. http://www.mjau-mjau.com/classic.html
2. http://www.imagevuex.com/imagevue/
3. http://www.airtightinteractive.com/news/

I suggest turning up the volume for the first two.

~ Ankur.

Satanic Verses..

I have now got hold of the book 'Satanic Verses' as well along with all the geeky stuff. This was one book which I had wanted for a while, and now that I have it, I have removed it from my wishlist.

Which in turn brings me to the positives of having a wishlist on one's blog. One of my batchmates from insti just wandered off here to my blog, noticed the name of this book in my wishlist, happened to have its e-book, and just mailed it across! So now I have the book as well as e-book of the same. Isn't that just great. Reminds me of the Ministry of Plenty!

~ Ankur.

Hell, am I in heaven?!

Man, am I walking the clouds these days! I have got my laptop now, and it's here right now - right under my fingers, and this is my first post using it :D

I have gone geeker too since its arrival. Have configured the Internet connection on my comp as a shared one, so that I can use it through this thing also. Now, what I need is just a long LAN wire, or a small wireless setup, so that I can use it from anywhere within my home, for as much time - since it is a flat rate connection. I have started using blog aggregators with some ease now, which have made my life as a reader much easier. And now that I have started using them, I notice what a great thing they are! They bring everything to you - blogs, news, cartoon strips, editorials, any information you want, rather than you going to each of them. Everything has a similar future anyways now - reach out to the consumer. That's why information through wireless devices is the hottest thing. Those who can facilitate that, are in the race. But this is almost the present - one can make any information he wants reach him in real-time. The next generation is where one doesn't even have to do that. No need to even set up what you want everywhere, so that it may reach you by itself later - now they'll just review the pattern of information one accesses and present only that sort of stuff to you. Those who'll do that too, will win the race.

I wait for the day when I'll set up a login on an aggregator like Bloglines, and it'll scan my internet history, or cookies, or whatever, and tell me that these are the places I visit most often, and I might want to subscribe to their feeds. And then it'll say that my Google search pattern shows I am interested in such stuff, while the content on my hard drive says I am interested in such and such stuff too, and the most popular feeds on those topics are these and these, so would I like to subscribe to them too? And I'll say - Good going dude, ya subscribe me to them. But then that'll be too much information, and I would like to know stuff in real-time, so it'll then say - Don't worry sir, we'll send sms to you as soon as the feed of your very special interest is generated. And I'll say - Now you're talking! All the information, and no need to go anywhere.

Later, some programs will come up which will say that there is still too much information, and they'll filter all that for me using my recent online information behaviour patterns, and present only that information which they think is most relevant at present. Then there will be programs that'll hide one's online information patterns related to specific subjects which one doesn't want these sniffer programs to detect, and will be information firewalls for us. In the end there will be studies on how such things have increased psyschosomatic diseases in humans, and other studies on the growing number of schizophrenic disorders in children. All this will be combined with crazy dotcoms which will say 'Find out how many people are having exactly the same information patterns as you are doing today!' And then Google will again come up with something revolutionary.

Well, that was future for you. Presently, I just need an aggregator which can get me the feed of the comments posted on the blogs in addition to the blog feed. And I really have no hopes from Bloglines, which has let itself being taken over by a loser like Ask Jeeves.

~ Ankur.

Mad Mad Google..

Google - it has gone mad.

Now till yesterday, I was very bugged by that persistent message on the top of my Gmail, saying 'You have 5 Gmail invitations left'. It's a very unharming message, and one might even not notice it, but somehow I was very bugged by that. To me it felt like 'Dude, you still have 5 Gmail invitations left?!' Kinda get-a-life-dude message from Google. Again, yesterday (or maybe a few days earlier, but then I didn't notice it till yesterday), Google removed that message and placed a search-bar sort of a thing in the left-side panel. This was too much for my self-esteem to take. I mean, these guys were really throwing this at my face! So I decided to do something about it. And yesterday I caught hold of the absolutely fresh, innocent and unsuspecting new joinees here at workplace, cornered them strategically in a way Anand would be proud of me, and yelled with pure brute force - 'You tiny little smudgy new joinee, Do YOU have Gmail? X-(' And dumb guys, some of them, they were really amused at my crazy happiness and samba-dance when they uttered a scared 'No'. And so I made them write their full email ids on a piece of paper and sprinted for my comp.

Alas, there were only 2 of them, and I could send only two invites. But nonetheless, the task was getting done. And I came back today morning so happy thinking the message in that painful search-bar-type thing would say '3 left'. Just 3 more and it would go away for ever and ever. But what do I see there today, and Google is really really mad, it says - '50 invitations left.'

Google is mad. Gmail is mad. Do they really expect me to find 50 people remaining in this world whom I know and they do not have Gmail. Why don't they get off Beta instead now!

And I thought, only the Romans were crazy!

~ Ankur.

These Norms..

It's amazing how some names just become a synonym of a community of things they represent. They are the pioneers of their fields. Read about the same somwhere yesterday, and got this image as a forward today. Just made me wonder again. Give a thought to these names - Google, Xerox, TiVo, and if I go more local and FMCGish - Maggi, Band-aid, Rasna. They simply define what they represent.

Googling is such a common term for students and people like me, working in business research firms. One would invariably find people taking a xerox using their photocopiers! Maybe we aren't as familiar with TiVo here in India, but heard that terms are being coined on it too. And there are so many I don't even remember/know.

I wonder how great would it be to invent something which becomes a norm, a definition. I would like to invent one and say - 'Well, you know, I did that first.'

~ Ankur.

Music, dram, blah..

For some days now my playlist, which has me absolutely satiated, has looked like this:

Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
Riders on the Storm - Doors
Layla - Eric Clapton
Coming Back to Life - Pink Floyd
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
We Don't Need No Education - Pink Floyd
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
November Rain - Guns and Roses

And I have suddenly started getting a lot many ideas about using this music in PAFs and plays, which never happened with me when I could actually do something about it. Anyhow, since nothing can be done about that now, nothing will be done about it. Though there's a distant possibility of starting a dram club here at workplace, or something of the sort, as my project manager himself is a major actor guy, and sufficiently enthu for the same, but it's still bleak. And bleaker is it's success or model or whatever we are going to do in that club.

By the way, I'd like to add 'Tears in Heaven' and 'Change the World' by Clapton to the above playlist, and in case you have access to them please to make good use of Gmail. I can be reached at ankur[dot]shrivastava[at]gmail.com, or should I add these to my wishlist instead :?

~ Ankur.

The Gadget Guy..

This thing is just a few days away from me now:

Dell Inspiron 700m

Exactly 4 days away to be precise. At 12.1 inches and around 1.6 kgs, it's the smallest multimedia notebook in the world! Absolutely ultraportable. To add to that, I plan to change my cell phone to a Reliance connection, which can now get one on the net anywhere, anytime. Laptop with wireless Internet, cool! In addition, very shortly (in precisely 11 days), I'll also have this with me:

Canon PowerShot A75

I have my backpack fully planned now - Laptop, digicam, and wireless internet :) Fully capable to point, shoot, upload, blog. Now, I feel like a pure gadget guy! What more can one ask for! Wait, I need something to carry all this and myself around. Well, I've been in this dilemma for long now - to go for a bike or a car. Although my mean machine - my dude scooter is doing better now, it does not seem that it'll take me to very far off places. Anyway, there's some time before I decide.

Till then I hope to click and blog on a regular basis. And in the meantime, you can have a look at my updated wishlist. And in case you are rich enough, you very well know my hidden intentions :)

~ Ankur.

Thought for the day..

'When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.'

- The American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Essentially - Whenever something goes wrong, those with the ability to do something, have the responsibility to go ahead and do something.

[Courtesy: National Treasure!]

~ Ankur.

Interesting..

Interestingly, and amusingly, the first link I get on putting my name on google and searching these days is my IIT Bombay alumni profile! I have such a smiley photograph up there :) - http://www.alumni.iitb.ac.in/details.asp?scn=28305

This page doesn't seem to get a mention in the search, even though I have put my name in the meta tags of the template. I wonder how can one make a page climb up the google search rankings :?

~ Ankur.

So it begins..

Location: Near Crossword, Hiranandani, Bombay
Date: May 4, 2004
Time: Late night

This is my first image post, in life. I had resolved to never post anything not clicked by myself, yet making this one allowance. Though this one was clicked by Taxi using his digicam, I like the output a lot - it seems more like an old scanned photograph.

Anyways, even though a digicam is still in my wish list, it is much closer to my hands now. And I hope to click many, and keep them safe here. By Feb-end, I plan to open up an online album, and obviously put up a link to it here.

By the way, the real reason for the shift in blogs is my new expected digicam. I wanted a much more customizable environment, and a white background, and LJ didn't allow that. And once I was at blogger, thought I might as well start afresh :)

~ Ankur

New, new! Extra shine, extra white!

A new year, a new blog!

At this rate, soon I'll have to maintain a long blogroll for my own blogs :D Good in a sense, I can then choose where to post according to the subject. Or maybe according to the place. That'll be great! And maybe we can have a function for every mood. Like if I am happy I can post at the happy blog, and if I add a few years to that, if I am sad, and at home, I can post at the sad blog, which is dark blue in colour, and not violet, because I am not that sad, and not at workplace, and further down the years, not red because I am not hungry, and not in a movie which has Angelina Jolie in it and I am not wearing sneakers. And then when we are out of colurs, we can do it by a combination of fonts! Wow, a blog in wingdings would be interesting! And then I'll maintain blogrolls of my blogrolls. This is getting even more exciting!

But what the hell are all the programmers doing? What is dumb Google doing? Taking over a primitive Blogger. Don't they understand my simple needs? I need programmers to work for this. And everyone says future, advances, technology! Where are they today? They say blogs are in top 10 things in 2004. Where are the blogs? I need blogs, more and more of them, and what are these geeks doing? Sleeping in their dumb holes! What's the matter with these guys? What's the matter with the world?! Don't they understand what the world needs?

I think noone will ever understand what the world truly needs. Nothing's going right around here. And they don't give me enough blogs too. I revolt!

Welcome aboard.

~ Ankur.