TOPPER

As the calender year is approaching its last-days, we could find the top 10 stories of 2003 at every news portal. I found a good article in Computer World that lists the 'Ten Stories That Rocked Your World'. There is another article in MSNBC 'Science highlights of dark mysteries' that enumerates the top 10 breakthroughs in Technology. Here is CNN's list 'Top sci-tech stories of 2003'. A lot more articles are yet to be discovered....

CHRISTMAS TIME...

Y'day, I had a nice time at Rajesh anna's home. As soon as I entered his house in the morning, I could find a well-decorated christmas tree placed in the living room and also a few changes to the home-settings. My brother's friend's family joined us for lunch and we all had a fun-filled chat soon after.... In the dusk, we spent our time watching a DVD movie ("Bruce Almighty") and then, I came to my appt late night...

SPENT THE DAY WITH MY COMP`

Nothing much today... I was just installing the drivers and a few applications to my laptop. It was infact like a house-arrest... I was medling my comp for the whole time at home. Anyway, I went shopping to Super Target and Alberston in the early morn and got some tasty cakes, cookies and an apple pie at the post-christmas sale. Thats all for today~

INDRA - TOO GOOD A MOVIE...

Today, I saw the movie "INDRA" for the 2nd time. What a movie... Its just great. Hats of to the entire team and special hats to Chiru. Its a great piece of action-display by the Mega Star. I am now really disappointed for having missed his latest movies "Tagore" and "Anji". May be I will watch them during my summer hols in India. Just cannot offord to miss them ~

WHAT MAKES A COMPANY GET ON TOP...?

Suddenly, I started to ponder over what factors make an I.T company to get on top of the world. Infact, this could apply to any company... (I.T based or non I.T based). I listed out the following 9 factors for success... I could get this insight from various articles that I have read...

1. Play it positive... A recent survey of 300 CEOs found that corporate managers are showing a growing interest in boosting company revenue rather than just cutting costs.

2. Marketing- Bring together business process expertise and information technology expertise. Knowledge is power… Act smart to the market demands. Plan ahead and be first to get the market-information on your table. Act fast and on a timely fashion. To be at the right spot at the right time matters the most. With this regard, Bill Gates has been a very smart entrepreneur…

3. Focus on a wide scope of customers (BIG, MEDIUM, and SMALL). "The IT industry's not the same old industry we've been used to in the last 10 or 15 years...This is a customer-driven industry, not an IT-driven industry based on what the industry thinks is right" IBM's chief financial officer, John Joyce said.

4. Good Human-resource management. Effective Team organization & team efforts, Simple organizational structure, Fun filled environment and highly energetic & capable developers.

5. Time bounded service delivery. Punctual in its business operations such as product delivery dates, milestones, etc… Have a leeway for the process completion before setting the deadline.

6. Quality Product development. Quality of the product should be given the paramount importance. Don't settle for anything less. "A lot of time is saved if things are done right the first time" as said by the entrepreneur Steve Jobs.

7. Good Customer support. The management should always be accessible to the clients and its customers. This includes post-delivery product support.

8. Deliver Wholistic Products... Customers are increasingly seeking packaged solutions to specific business problems rather than making technology purchases in a piecemeal fashion.

9. Simplicity of usage (user-friendly and simple). The product should give minimum workload for its users and easy to understand interfaces. On observation, we will notice that Microsoft products deliver an exceptional user-friendly interface. This is why Microsoft stands out from the rest… and has successfully monopolized the O.S industry.

GREAT GOING I.T... KEEP UP THE PACE !

The I.T industry has started to climb up the same ladder that it has once got down. I.T markets have now stabilized and started making growth to reach the peak spot. I got the info from the MSN.COM which states that ....According to a survey made by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), the top 7 fastest growing occupations projected for 2000 to 2010 are all I.T based jobs. They include

1. Computer Software Engineers, applications

2. Computer Support Specialists

3. Computer Software Engineers, software systems

4. Network and Computer Systems Administrators

5. Network Systems and data communications analysts

6. Desktop publishers

7. Database Administrators.

Thats a good news to all of us... especially for students like me who will step into the industry within a year. Great going I.T.... Keep up the pace !

80/20 principle...

Today, I read an article abt the 80/20 principle in MSN, which said that 80% of the success is brought by the first 20% of the effort. This is a very true observation made by an Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto. This article triggers in me, yet another observation made by a famous entrepreneur -Steve Jobs. He said that a lot of energy is saved if you do things right the first time.

But, mind you.... The last 20% of your efforts is that which will distinguish you from the rest. Your accomplishment will stand out from others and goes beyond your predefined objectives only if the concluding 20% of your total efforts are put right. So, I could conclude that the initial 20% and final 20% is what matters the most. If these lie on the right path, the filling is always a smooth sailing... and accomplishment is sure to happen ~

LOOKING UP AT THE DOWNTOWN...

For the first time in 4 months of my stay in Dallas, I visited the Dallas Downtown. I had nice fun travelling by "DART" transport, changing buses, boarding the metro trains and trying to discover routes by reading the map. I was accompanied by my friends Vijay and Govi all through my trip. Vijay was the one who travelled twice by DART earlier to this trip. So, he guided us in catching the right bus/train. Actually, the process of finding the right one is very simple. At any point of time, we can call the toll-free dart number for help, and they would guide us in planning our trip.

The Dallas Downtown is too good... (obviously). From here, we boarded a train and had our way to Plano Downtown... then we got into a bus to reach Collin Creek Mall. We killed our time there... and to give a final touch to our trip, we tried to visit the temple at South Irving... But we could not find it out. May be next time, I need to ask my seniors for the exact location of the temple before starting our trip from the univ. It was a great day at the end. On returning home, we tried to check out our grades from my univ server... but the server was shut down... It was a nice day at the end.

THE MUCH AWAITED LAPTOP

The delivery date of my laptop as mentioned in the DELL official website is December 8, 2003... but the delivery time was not mentioned. So, I had to sit at home waiting for my laptop in the morn. In the afternoon, I was accompaniedby my friend Vijay for lunch. Soon after we had our lunch, I slowly started getting impatient and restless to stay at home... Suddenly, I heard someone knocking my door firmly. I opened the door, and it was indeed the delivery guy. I was infact waiting for this "knock knock" since morning. I put my signature on an electronic tool and got my laptop delivered.

Vijay and I opened the parcel, got my laptop out and, we quickly connected it to the adapter. We then plugged it into the socket and switched it ON... The Windows XP home edition came up and we could start working on it straight away. The keyboard is damn good and it just requires a feather-touch to press a key... but I felt uncomfortable handling the touchpad (which was a replacement for the mouse). May be I'll get used to it very soon... ~ Later in the evening, I went shopping and on returning to the univ, I registered for a Wireless connection from my laptop to my campus server. Thanks to dad for letting me get such a wonderful laptop...

MERA BHARAT MAHAAN

I just came across an interesting article in "The Economic Times" about "Brand INDIA", written by Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chaiman, Aditya Birla Group). Check out this link: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-331534,curpg-2.cms. It makes every Indian proud of his nation... and there are lot more related articles written by various other Big-Shots of INDIA. Check them out ~

HOLIDAYS - ITS JUST THE BEGINNING

All my exams got over today... and my holidays start off from tommorow. A lot of interesting things to do during the hols... having big plans to master all the flavors of JAVA by the end of Spring'04 semester. So, I need to start learning them right away... Having had the basics of Mobile computing, I am greatly fascinated towards "Pervasive Computing". I am also having in mind to develop a technical survey paper on this area of Computing, and later try on simulating / programming the possible solutions under the guidance of my professor. Hope my prof considers me for an independent study in this area of computing... Right now, I am just waiting for my laptop to be delivered to my appt ~

A VERY DIFFERENT DAY !...

I enjoyed my bday... though being away from home. In the morning, I was woken up by my mom's phone call, and then all my near & dear ones wished me on my bday... My friends Ajit and Vinodh also called me, but I was not there at home to receive their call... However, I got their message recorded in my voice mail.

At 10:30 am, I chatted with my parents with my webcam beside me... They all greeted me and were happy to see me in new clothes. Later in the day, I had my lunch at my brother's home, made some shopping at Walmart and then, had a nice nap on returning home. I spent my evening by studying at the library... Overall, its been a nice day ~

SEARCH FOR A PIC ...

Just trying my options of changing the look and feel of my blog site. Not the format nor the template.... just the picture at the left corner of this site. I spent some time browsing at the pictures at google as a quickie break from the studies. Still looking on for a perfect pic... Plz mail me if u have one !

A COSTLY BIRTHDAY GIFT....

10 more hours to go for my b'day... and on today morn, I got the birthday gift parcel from my parents... The gift was sent by Fedex... Hey! Fedex service is really wonderful... and too punctual. The parcel was delivered at my door step at sharp 10:30 am as mentioned in the website.... In the gift box, I could find delicious sweets from the best sweet shop in Chennai... more than 4 freaky T-shirts, few documents,sweaters, CDs, books and other stufff... Its a great gift from my parents and sis. Thanks a lot ! They are tooo good !

A costlier gift is... a laptop. I found a nice deal for a laptop with the highest config seen so far from Dell . There was a $450 rebate for 5150 model of Dell Inspiron series. So.... I was fast to act on it. I got permission from my parents....At once, they agreed and gave me complete freedom to purchase the stuff... I then spoke to Rajesh anna regarding the config and discussed with him about how good was deal. Finally... we all decided to get that laptop. It was overall a spontaneous and a fast decision taken to purchase this laptop....

I NEED TO REBEL AGAINST MYSELF !

While being in solitude, a question just propped up in my mind... Am I SUFFICIENTLY pro-active ? ? ? Thanks to Rajesh anna for all the motivation he has given me... I know for sure that I have been pro-active to accomplish many of my goals. Doubtlessly, I am in the path of getting high on life.... But now, I am pondering over 1 question... Can I accomplish things at a faster rate? The answer from me to this question is YES YES YES. I feel like rebelling over the bounds that I have set for myself. Having purchased a laptop now, I am looking forward for a great progress at a faster rate for the times to come ~

A lot more could have been done during this Fall semester in addition to my academics, but I failed to hasten my progress... I could have mastered all flavors of JAVA, or I could have gained expertise in VC++ or C#.... I could have worked on a project on mobile applications out of self interest... But, I only concentrated hard on academics and the grades, and prioritized others later in the list... I actually had the intent to specialize other skills apart from academics, but time just passed away faster than I could realize. Anyway, I am happy to have realized the fact pretty soon. I have lot more time and opportunity to explore. Now my immediate target is to gain mastery in Flavors of JAVA by the end of Spring'04 semester. I am literally challenging myself to achieve it.~ The light courses that I have taken for Spring'04 semester will help me to accomplish this task with ease...