'Life and Music' from Alan Watts

Check out this flash video - http://www.neticons.net/music_life/



# “In music, one doesn’t make the end of the composition the point of the composition.”
# We are motivated by the carrots of grades and success. Elementary > Grade School > High School > College > Grad School > Job
# When you “get” success at 40, it’s a let-down. A hoax.
# We think of life as a journey with a destination (success, heaven). But we missed the point. It was a musical thing, we were supposed to sing and dance while music was being played.

The Sultan of Software retires

Arguably the best businessman of our century, Bill Gates, retired from the day-to-today operations of the company he co-founded - Microsoft. Over a span of 33 years, this man has transformed an era. He has been 'The Hero' for millions of people worldwide !

When I look at his career overall, The way he built his whole empire, the chances that he took, the various battle that he played with the industry giants of that time such as IBM...It is just so mesmerizing and inspiring! I know, many people would say that Bill Gates was very lucky in a way to get to a position that he is today. I agree. Yes, Luck has played a very vital role in his initial career. But the important thing is He knows that! He knows he was lucky enough at the start of Microsoft. If we look at the industry scenario at the start of 1970s, PC wasn't a big market at that time. But Bill(along with few others like Steve Jobs) had a vision that PC is going to be THE market in the future. As Steve Jobs mentioned at the historic D5 meet, "Bill was the first person at that time who knew, it was Software that was going to be the next big thing" !

I would like to mention the history for the laymen about how Microsoft emerged as THE big company. During the late 70s, IBM was the Industry giant and they were mainly into the mainframes. But with the emergence of companies like Apple, Xerox, Digital Research etc in the PC market, IBM decided to capture this market as well! So they decided to make IBM PC. The way IBM worked, It would take at least 3 years for a new product to be launched. But with the rapid demand for the PCs... IBM decided to make an assembled PC in order to launch its PC within a year. So they decided to buy various parts from various vendors and assembled them. The only chip that was IBM's in that PC was ROM-BIOS, a chip that maintains what all parts are connected and how all are connected and how they would work together. They wanted OS for this machines. Now at that time, CP/M was the widely used OS, created by Gary Kildall of Digital Research Inc. IBM's discussion with Gary went poorly, so IBM turned their head to Bill Gates.(What a waste of opportunity Gary!) Now comes the interesting part! Microsoft was not into OS at that point of time. They didn't have their own OS. But, there was an OS similar to CP/M(In fact, a copy of CP/M literally) created by Tim Patterson called QDOS(Quick and Dirty OS !) Bill Gates bought it ! Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS. Gates insisted that IBM let Microsoft keep the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system (Wow, What a masterpiece of vision !)They did(thanks to the reverse engineering!), and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.

So it was just a share of luck that Bill needed and he just cashed onto that! The triumph was so huge that IBM had to fall down(due to their bad management mostly) and Microsoft emerged as the software giant in 80s and 90s and Bill Gates as the Sultan of the Software! He was good enough to notice the importance of GUI when he
started making Windows @ Microsoft. Though, It is mostly copied from Macintosh !(Mind you, The original GUI was a creation of Xerox PARC which Steve Jobs saw. and hence Macintosh itself is not original!)

He faced a lot of criticism and allegations about trying to create a monopoly in the business. The antitrust lawsuit that was filed against Microsoft, was I think one of the saddest phases in Gates's career. Gates is a kind of person who wants to win all the time, for him Winning is really really important. Later on, he started philanthropic work. Though Software still remains his first love, he has stepped down to devote full time for society and his philanthropy. I wish him all the best with his future and he will remain a HERO for many geeks worldwide, at least me!

I am giving some links really useful and one must have a look at them, trust me!
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Together - Historic discussion at D5
The Bill Gates story - aired on the Biography Channel
Triumph of the Nerds
The Pirates of the silicon valley
Fortune - Slideshow of Some rare photos

Being Twenty Something - "Quarter Life Crisis"

[Source - An e-mail forwarded by a friend!]

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.

You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it.
We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to your twenty-something friends... maybe it will help someone feel like they aren't alone in their state of confusion...


We call it the 'Quarter-life Crisis.'

Tomato Story

Received this via an e-mail... :)

TOMATO STORY

A Jobless man applied for the position of 'office boy' at Microsoft.The HR manager interviewed him then watched him cleaning the floor as a test.

'You are employed' he said. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you the application to fill in, as well as date when you may start.

The man replied 'But I don't have a computer, neither an email'.

'I'm sorry', said the HR manager. If you don't have an email, that means you do not exist. And who doesn't exist, cannot have the job.'

The man left with no hope at all. He didn't know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10Kg tomato crate. He then sold the tomatoes in a door to door round. In less than two hours,he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated the operation three times,and returned home with $60.

The man realized that he can survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday.

Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

5 years later, the man is one of the biggest food retailers in the US ...
He started to plan his family's future, and decided to have a life insurance.

He called an insurance broker, and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded the broker asked him his email.

The man replied,'I don't have an email.'

The broker answered curiously, 'You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e mail?!!' The man thought for a while and replied,
'Yes, I'd be an office boy at Microsoft!'

World Record Certificate for Downloading Firefox 3

To get one for yourself, Click Here!

Nadvedh - नादवेध

12 June..The day many maharashtrians would remember! The memorial day of the idol - Pu la Deshpande! Swaranjali Pratishthan, Pune organized a program in his tribute! I was fortunate enough to attend!

Nadvedh is more of a mehfil! It is anchored by Mr Achyut S Godbole(ASG). What this man can do is a different topic all together, but this is just one of the many facets of his personality! I will have a blog post separately dedicated to him, sometime later!

Coming back to the topic, till this program, I was never fascinated by Classical Music. Maybe my ignorance about this thing being the prime reason! But I never really understood why would a someone go on singing one raag for 2 hours, 3 hours ! I used to see the so called 'learned' listeners and would get really irritated when they would show that they have a lot of knowledge in what is going on on the stage. I have no problem with people enjoying, but there has to be some limit. Why show world? Keep it with you! And people who believe they understand a thing or two about music, do have a tendency to show off - This is my personal opinion. Many can argue on that! To each its own!

Nadvedh changed my whole attitude towards Music. ASG explained raags like Bhimpalasi, Malhar, Yaman and their various other derivatives, the various hindi, marathi movie songs, non-movie songs, gazals, bandishis, various memories associated with those songs, few things about the lives of the music maestros - Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Mehdi Hassan etc ! It was all just majestic!! One would like to just go on listening to ASG as he unfolds. The peculiar thing about him is that, at the start ASG makes you believe that he himself doesnt know a great deal about music..Just being like any other guy like you. But as he goes on n on n on.. You realize that you are being fooled... n this guy is really a father of many in this category. Such is the charisma of this program! He is equally supported on stage by his sister, Sulabha Pishawikar who happens to be a trained classical singer and some other singers to accompany the mehfil !

The program has installed some interest in me to start understanding Music in order to enjoy it more! I dont think Music is a thing to analyze..But it is something that you should enjoy. One should be able to feel Music. In Kishoritai's words, "Music musically leads to silence"! What say folks?

Gmail Labs + Google Talk Labs

Many of the Google followers must be aware of the fact about Google has a website that demonstrates new Google projects which are not ready for prime time as yet - Yes, you are right. I am talking about Google Labs. Google Reader, Google Notebook, iGoogle, Google Maps etc being some of the wonderful graduates of labs.

Recently Google released Google Talk Labs edition. I tried it today, its good and really useful. It doesnt have many updates to the normal Gtalk version. Just few desktop notifications added and some changes with Talk UI.

More importantly, Google released a GMail Labs version yesterday. I dont how many of you are aware but this outstanding e-mail client service is still in its Beta version. It just makes you wonder what Google is thinking in terms of advancing GMail. I have been using a Better Gmail firefox extension for quite a few months now. The new GMail Labs version is more a step towards adding the Better Gmail Greasemonkey scripts to standard Gmail, though not entirely. But it is really good and really useful. What u need to do is just search for Labs tab in Gmail Settings. So guys, go check out the new additions with both GTalk and GMail Labs.

To know more on GMail Labs, See this Official Gmail blog and Gmail Labs - Lifehacker story.

Update: Dated June 7, 2008
The link to this post appeared on Official Gmail Blog yesterday and viola! My site traffic just shoot up like never before! So for all u bloggers out there who want to increase their site traffic, link as much as u can :)

I wonder why !

I wonder why. I wonder why.
I wonder why I wonder.
I wonder why I wonder why
I wonder why I wonder !
-- Richard P. Feynman

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

Few days back, a good friend of mine - Aditya shared me a youtube link. I wasnt really excited about it... as the video was some 76 minutes long and So it would take few hours to buffer that. Rather I decided to download it so that i can see it afterwards. Well the video is about Randy Pausch, A 47 year old Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Professor, and it was his last lecture. Randy was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer in Sept 2006 and was told in August 2007 to expect a remaining three to six months of good health.

This lecture is titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it," some in the audience shouted back, "You did!".

Few excerpts from the Wall Street Journal's article on Randy. I recommend all to read this article.

"Randy Pausch, a professor at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, has become famous for the way in which he chose to say goodbye to his students and colleagues. His final lecture to them, delivered last September, turned into a phenomenon, viewed by millions on the Internet. Dying of pancreatic cancer, he showed a love of life and an approach to death that people have found inspiring. For many of us, his lecture has become a reminder that our own futures are similarly -- if not as drastically -- brief. His fate is ours, sped up."

I am embedding that video here for your reference - DON'T MISS IT !

Spread Firefox - Download Day 2008

Come, Join Mozilla in a mission to create a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours ! As many of you might be aware that Firefox 3 is set for its release in June, all you have to do is download Firefox 3 on the Download Day(official date to be announced soon) and help your favorite browser make a Guinness World Record. Check out SpreadFirefox link for details.

One more thing needs to be added. As i see the SpreadFirefox site now, Only 1321 people from India have pledged to download Firefox 3 on the download day, out of the total 99269 pledges. Come on India, What is this?.. I am sure we can do a hellll lottt better.. Lets show the world, we are not far behind ! I hope my countrymen do not let me down..I HOPE !

The 3 mistakes of my life

For all u Chetan Bhagat fans out there(i am surely being one), CB has come up wid his new book almost after a span of 3 years - the 3 mistakes of my life! Given the vast success his previous two books had achieved, this one is not going to disappoint you. Though many CB critics feel that his books do not fall into the literature category - I dont care, rather we all CB fans dont care! "The biggest-selling english language novelist in India's history" -- Chetan Bhagat covered by New York Times! This man is really making India read big in recent times. FPS, one night @ call center and now 3...The subjects are so close to the current generation..No wonder he strikes the chord with the indian youth in no time !

The 3 mistakes of my life is again a story of 3 friends..a story about business, cricket, and religion...I really enjoyed reading it. There are lots of incidents which are totally filmy..but isn't it a CB book speciality?..I would not go into the plot of the story..its better you go n read ! I recommend this book to all! You can also have a look at some of reviews here - Rashmi, livemint.

Memristor - The Fourth Passive Circuit Element revealed

Memristor (Short for Memory Resistor)is all over the news today...Yesss the missing fourth fundamental passive circuit element has been discovered at last ! This is in no boubt a real big achievement.. and is something really new in the fundamental electronics.

Well, theorotically Memristor isnt anything new. It has existed in theory for last 37 years, But it is now, today that it has been discovered by four researchers at HP Labs’ Information and Quantum Systems Lab, led by R. Stanley Williams. In a paper published in today’s edition of Nature, researchers at HP Labs presented the mathematical model and a physical example of a 'memristor' – a blend of memory and resistor – which has the unique property of retaining a history of the information it has acquired.

And this can mean big implications ! One application for this research could be the development of a new kind of computer memory that would supplement and eventually replace today’s commonly used dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Computers using conventional DRAM lack the ability to retain information once they lose power. When power is restored to a DRAM-based computer, a slow, energy-consuming 'boot-up' process is necessary to retrieve data from a magnetic disk required to run the system. “A memory based on memristors could be 1000 times faster than magnetic disks and use much less power,” Williams says.

A memristor is essentially a resistor with memory. The actual resistance of the memristor changes depending on the amount of voltage and the time for which that voltage has been applied to the device. The IEEE Spectrum article has much more profound article on this and as is EETimes article. trust me, both are a must read!

And as IEEE Kirchoff Award winner Leon Chua( He was the one who predicted the existence of memristors) says about this discovery "now all the EE textbooks need to be changed" !!!

Viva la resistance

Source - http://www.iamanangelchaser.com/products/viva_la_resistance/viva_la_resistance.html

Some good management fundas

Lalu Yadav.. Hilarious !

This is Lalu Yadav at his very best ! Must see !!