Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Our President Speaks!

I'm sorry, I'm posting this verbatim from First Draft
Just too funny/shameful. Tell me how does someone like this get elected to office? Maybe Laloo Prasad Yadav & Rabri Devi can do better!

Chimpy sat down for a chat with Sean Hannity yesterday.

Values Matters Well

Well, I suspect people are going to vote for [Georgia Republikkkan] Max [Burns] because they know him as local boy who's got — share their values. Now, values matters well in a race.

Deep Thinker

Well, I think this: I think that if you don't think we're in a war that you can't win the war.

A Trip to the Concession Stand

Now, you can imagine these radicals getting a hold of a country where they're able to pull oil off the market to run the price of oil up to extract concession. What concession would they like? Well, one concession would be to retreat. In other words, you don't retreat, we'll raise the price of oil.

Brain Fart

They have a different view of the world that then makes — that — and, therefore, their policies would weaken us.

What Your Politics Is?

No matter what your politics is, we ought to be thanking these people for volunteering.

"Stay the Course" Twisted By Democrats

Well, what I meant was, "Don't leave before the job is done." But in my line of work, words always get, you know, kind of put in different contexts and, you know, I guess they use words to suit their purposes. Stay the course, when I said that, was we will get the job done, because I understand that if we leave Iraq before the job is done, it will make the world a very dangerous place and make this country more vulnerable to attack.

Negative Trouble

Well, listen, there's a lot of pessimists who don't believe, one, we should have been there and, two, that we can't succeed. And that is just plain wrong that people can't — believe we can't succeed.

Remember All Those Pessimists At The End OF WWII

There were people who said we couldn't succeed after World War II, couldn't succeed during the Cold War. And, fortunately, the leaders then didn't listen to the pessimists.

Desperate For... Something

In the meantime, there are societies where people are so hopeless that they're desperate for, you know, something. In other words, imagine the type of society in which a 16-year-old kid agrees that maybe the best thing for him is to listen to an elder and strap a suicide — you know, conduct a suicide operation.

Bin Laden -- Not The Suicider

You'll notice, by the way, that Usama bin Laden doesn't actually — is not the suicider. He finds desperate people who are the suiciders or propagandize people.

Freedom Will End Up Doing

Right now, there's an ideological conflict going on and — but freedom will end up doing is preventing the totalitarian point of view from gaining even more traction than it has.

Britain Detains People Trying To Protect Us

Witnessed some of those bombers in Great Britain that we helped Great Britain detain. And, by the way, the British did a wonderful job of finding those people before they got on airplanes to protect us.

The Ubiquitous Number 3

Well, [capturing bin Laden is] important, and that's why we're after him every single day. But so is getting Zawahiri important, and so is getting the number-three guy, whoever he is when they pop up. You know, we've got this guy, Zarqawi.

Friday, October 27, 2006

British Airways Advertisment (India)

Loved this ad...

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Posted by Picasa
Here is my son. He turned 5 recently. I love the glow in his face and the reflection from his clothes. He's such a wonderful kid and we feel blessed to have him.
Vittal got lucky with 2 birthday bashes. The first was @ a local science center for all his classmates @ KG and the second was @ home - combined with diwali for a mostly desi crowd.
Thanks to all friends who came....

Monday, October 23, 2006

Best-practice ideas of Sun Tzu and Krishna

Saw this over the weekend and found it an interesting read

ON FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

Greed is good. Troops have to see there is “advantage from defeating the enemy” in order to be motivated. Share the booty with the rank and file, and give them shares of conquered territory. Greed is bad. “You should never engage in action only for the desire of rewards,” Krishna says. Acting on worldly desires leads to failure. Do well, and good things will come.

ON MANAGING UNDERLINGS

Be tough. Sun Tzu calls for “iron discipline”: If you indulge troops with too much kindness and don’t maintain your authority, they’ll be “useless for any practical purpose.” Be fair. Enlightened leaders are compassionate and selfless, and they “treat everyone as their equals.” Followers will rally around them and follow their example.

ON INITIATIVE

Attack only when victory is likely. Better yet, maneuver to win without a fight. If the odds are bad, retreat and wait for another opportunity. Long campaigns strain resources and make you vulnerable. Act rather than react. A leader’s actions today can become the “karma” that influences his status tomorrow. Leaders accomplish “excellence by taking action,”

ON THE ULTIMATE GOAL

Beat the enemy. War is a vital fact of life that “cannot be neglected by a responsible sovereign.” Winning requires clever tactics and, in some cases, deception. Seek higher consciousness. Leaders should view problems within their larger contexts. Translation: Show sensitivity to multiple stakeholders including shareholders, employees, partners, and neighbors.



Thursday, October 19, 2006

TV to Ipod

Getting content from your television to your iPod just got a whole lot easier. Enter IRecord from Streaming Neworks , a PVR for your iPod. It uses “It uses H.264/AVC for video encoding and AAC for audio encoding... to give you 3 hours of video/audio recording per Gigabyte of storage.”

You simply hook it all up, press the record button on the device, and it records directly to your iPod. Then you can playback the video with no other steps involved. So Cool!

Sounds very cool.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Point of Inquiry Interview with Dr. Dawkins


Richard Dawkins, considered one of the world’s most influential scientists, is the first holder of the Charles Simonyi professorship of the public understanding of science at Oxford University.
In enjoyed his NPR interview on Talk of the Nation
He does very well when in the presence of Stephen Colbert too!
Have fun...

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Google Wallpaper


This neat app sits in your system tray and gives you a new desktop background at a given time. The image you see on the left is one that picks images fromn your collection. The link to the program above, gets you to have backgrounds come from Google Image Search, and are chosen via keywords that you give the program. Neat!

INstructables

I first came upon this site via Amit Agarwal
Here are some instructions to make your own ipod charger

Windows Password Lost! And Recovered!


Wow! Came back to office to see the Log-On screen. I have Win2000 on my desk @ work. Typed in the password only to be denied entry. I know that I had not changed a thing. Why it would not let me get back, I had no idea.
My company being very small and the lady that manages the computer system, has no certification (yeah, yeah, but my boss can't afford one!) she kindly offered to 'reformat my hard drive, when she gets a over there sometime next week'. 'Maybe'. Aaaargh.

So, I went on a search and quickly came upon this link. Burnt the files on a CD, reboot and presto worked like a charm. Got into my desktop. What would we do without the Internet? Oh. My. God. Looove google.

Would I tell my IT person? Nah. When she gets here next week. Maybe....

Gloomy weather, Bright pictures

The weather here is dull and gloomy. The forecast calls for more of the same. Then I came up on this image posted @ Digg. Wow!
The satellite Cassini is looking back @ the Sun, in Saturn's shadow... absolutely amazing.
Look back @ an image for each day of the year!

Desi Smells

I work in healthcare and frequently see folks from Indian community. If there is one distinctive feature, it is the smell that accompanies them! No, don't get me wrong, I'm not being racist here... I'm not saying they smell good or bad. But there's something as I enter the exam room that screams 'KITCHEN'!
Why do we not use any deoderant/perfume - esp women? You know, when I was growing up, in Chennai, the black market was all about the perfumes from Singapore or Dubai - besides a few electronic items, which everyone was afraid to touch, because the rule was 'if you touched it, you own it'. I was subject to this ridiculous rule in Moore Market when I was 12, but, that's another story for another day!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Vittal is close to completing his first season of Soccer practice! Almost every 4-5 yr old is there, being pushed by the parent! After knocking the ball around grudgingly, they run towards the snack table faster than anytime before!
Right after this he gets into the pool for swimming lessons. We think he has had a good summer! Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Nicest media player for the Mac

Quote "Designed from the ground up from people who like to watch movies, NicePlayer does all of the things that you would expect from a media player, and all of the things you didn't know you needed. " End Quote
See it here

NPR has a nice Science page

This is worth visiting every few days. Today they had a post on Laser Eye Surgery and

Dr. Slava Fyodorov's 'Beautiful Eyes'

A Flash Slideshow

I love the way photos can be displayed here. Of course the size looks a little (!) messy, but overall fun looking....

New Indian Govt Portal

I love this new website! Very well organized for the amount of information out there.
best of all this PhotoGallery.
Listen to the national song here
They even want comments/suggestion.
Go take a look...

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Bluehost Review