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 !!

Little hearts can keep beating, free of cost !

Please pass it on...

Amitabh Bachchan starts Blogging

It was Aamir 'The Ace' Khan who was the first Indian actor to start blogging seriously...Taking inspiration from him, many bollywood actors were seen on the blogosphere. Its now AB's turn to start blogging and interact with his fans on the Internet.

Bachchan has tied up with bigadda.com and will have his personal space there, where he will interact with his fans. He has requested his fans to talk to him, give him advice and suggestions, and said he wants to show them the real him through the blogsite.

When contacted Amitabh Bachchan said, “Yes my ID is bigb.bigadda.com. This gives me a platform to put across my views and thoughts and an opportunity to interact with my fans directly.”

When asked him how actively he plans to blog, given his busy schedule, he said, “I shall try to attend to it on a daily basis. I am new to this, so I am yet uncertain about the kind of time constraint it will involve. But I would like to make my blogs as personal as possible.”

Keep it up Mr. AB. For interested, Click here to read AB's Blog !

Renesas To Start Training On Microcontrollers

Renesas Technology Singapore Pte Ltd (RTSP) and EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd (EFY) have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate with each other to establish an education programme on Renesas Microcontroller (MCU).

The MoU signing ceremony embarks upon a mission to establish 'Hands-on Training' -- an education programme on Renesas Microcontroller to be offered by EFY to engineers, students and all such interested individuals and entities in India. The aim of the programme is to improve engineers’ technical proficiency on Renesas Microcontroller on embedded system design efficiency for the industry in India.

Goodbye Internet...GRID is coming

Do you use High Speed Internet? Does it take time to load some websites? How much time do you take to download a movie on it? Hours ?? Well, the reason this happens is that the no of users using the Internet is far beyond its capacity. Any Solution?.. Yes there is ! Dont worry..The successor to the Internet - GRID is coming ! Using GRID, one would be able to download a movie in 7 secs ! The most loved Internet may soon look like the floppy drives of early 90s compared to the Blue-ray disc.

The inventor of the Web, CERN, a Swiss organisation, is laying bricks for the next-age communication with the Grid. The Grid is supposed to be 10,000 times faster than the current connections. On the lines of the Web, the Grid will first connect leading research and academic institutions. But eventually, it will reach homes as well.

The possibilities that the Grid will offer are so vast that the imagination will have to take a back seat and wait for the Grid.

Interested people may want to have a look at this - GridCafe.

Achievers 08 - A salute to the torch bearers

Today i got a chance to attend a program organised by PUMBA called Achievers 08. The program was to felicitate some of the industry leaders and the achievers in their respective domains. The achievers list included some eminent personalities like -

Mr Dilip Chhabria, CEO and Chief Designer, DC Designs Pvt Ltd
Mr Achyut Godbole, MD, Softexcel Consultancy Services
Mr Ravi Pandit, Founder Chairman, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd and
Mr Subhash Kapre, CEO, Serum Institute of India

Today was one of the most memorable days in my life that i got to listen to all those eminent personalities. To learn from their experiences was a great experience. To know more about the event - Click here for the PUMBA site.

Microsoft Virtual TechDays

Microsoft Virtual TechDays - An event organized by Microsoft India for Developers and IT professionals to give further insight into Microsoft's latest technologies ! To be joined virtually on April 9 and 10 !

P.S.:- This is my 100th blog post ! Happy Blogging !

I blog, therefore I am. I am the Blog.

A wonderful video created on the eve of Pune Blogger meet organised by Indiblogger.in and Vineet Rajan

3 Corporate Lessons

Found a nice ppt while stumbling through some blogs. Source - Ravi Mevcha. The PPT is prepared by IIM - Kolkata and it explains 3 important lessons that need to be learned in Corporate Life!

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