GREAT PHOTO-SHOTS

Y'day, my friend Naveen was showing me his photo-shots at New Jersy, New York, Connecticut, and some other nice spots visited during his winter break... They were awesome! He is a doubtlessly a very good photographer and his snaps proved his interest in photography. His photo snaps were taken from his digi cam (SONY 5.0 Mega pixel) and he stored all of them in a CD. I was greatly impressed looking at these snaps on a full-screen slide-show. He covered some rare scenic beauties, beaches, sunrays reflected from sea water, WTC landmark, view inside a periscope of a submarine and several good stunts. I was very inspired to make the best use of my holidays tooooo and click at some equally good scenaries. Great work Naveen...!

NAMES DID NOT MATCH...

Today, I went to the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS) to get my Instructional Permit... But, I could not complete the process since my name on the SSN card and the one in my visa did not match (just an inter-change of my first name with my middle name). Ooops ! I need to go to the SSN office and get my name corrected on the card. That may take a few weeks before I get my new SSN card. Hmmm! Got to wait for nearly a month to get my I.P. Well... this is little frustrating.

SHAHRUKH IS INDEED THE BEST ...

Y'day, I made the best use of the day (lot of study for the day and a movie for the night)... At the night, I happened to watch Sharukh's latest movie "Kal ho na ho" in my laptop, sitting at my home. It had a blend of comedy and emotions through out the movie. It was touchy and Shahrukh was at his best (simply great !). It was after a long time that I watched a movie that triggered my emotions. Cool ~ anyway !

SEARCH FOR A JOB ON-CAMPUS

I tried my best to get an oncampus job at the start of this semester... but my efforts were just in vain. Anyway, its all luck-based and there is very little that we could do abt it. Never mind ! There is always a next time~ At the beggining, I felt frustrated and annoyed... but may be its all for my good. I started off with my assignments this week and shall learn Oracle from the mid of next month. The 2 pre-requisite classes are cool, demanding not much from me. The core course (Algorithms) is loaded with math, but appears interesting. Today, I started getting serious with my studies, prepared my plans for the next month, and also made up my mind to execute these plans without change.

Yesterday... There was a lot of fun at the 'Student Union'. Many kinds of cookies, creamless cakes and pizzas were on display. We had unlimited number of cookies followed by coke/pepsi cans. It was fun altogether.

DREAM CARS

Check this site : http://americandreams.msn.com/. It is damn good ! It is a list of Dream cars/technologies/vacation spots/ ...

MORE ABOUT LEADERS...

As I was browsing, I came across very useful links in 'Computer World' portal.

What Makes a Leader
IT leaders embody a nebulous combination of strength and compassion, technical know-how and business savvy. These men and women capture the essence of 10 key leadership characteristics. Here's how they've used those abilities to succeed.

Understanding - Jeffery C. Almoney
Advocacy - Sanjiv Anand
Creativity - Ronald Calderone
Passion - Patricia Coffey
Candor - Randy Cowen
Influence - Dennis Fishback
Inspiration - Evon L. Jones
Drive - Madge M. Meyer
Innovation - Daniel Morreale
Determination - Keith Morrow

JUST A DAY AHEAD...

My hols are coming to an end with classes starting from tommorow... My class hours are in the morning on Mondays & Wednesdays, and in the evening on Tue & Thu. I am happy with the way I spent my vacation... I had a mix of entertainment, relaxation, study, research, and a lot of fun. My routine starts right from tommorow morn.

LEADERS & LEADERSHIP

Today, I happened to read Darwin's observation about the evolution of species... It was so well stated, that it could be considered as the key aspect for survival of the fittest. The observation reads "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change". This is the quote which exactly applies to the current competative world in which, even the top companies die and are replaced by newcomers every few decades. Last week, I had come across several articles related to CEOs and their business tactics in today's hiebernate industry. One of them in 'MIT's Technological review' stated "A set of practices called Corporate Venturing would rejuvenate big companies". It listed 3 forms of venturing programs that create the core idea of Corporate Venturing. They are Alliances, Internal Venturing Programs and Corporate Venture Capital.

INTEL now follows this tactic to enhance its chipset sales. It has created a $200 million Venture Capital fund to invest in novice and small companies that specialize in technology for home appliances.

Another article in http://www.strategy-business.com/enewsarticle/enews010804
speaks about a novel approach that combines the classic values of discipline, focus and execution with the modern values of openness and casual work environment. Many executives discovered that innovation cannot be brought to the surface in the guidance of restless & short-tempered leaders. It is only the creative free spirits guided by discipline & purpose bring colourful results. The key personality of a leader is to be sober. The article states as follows... "Sober is the one who sees things as they really are, not as he would like them to be." These are great tips to managers, CEOs and even for ordinary people aspiring to become leaders.

NOT AT MY HOME...

You could have hardly found me at my appartment for the whole of last week. I spent my days at Rajesh anna's home during the christmas and the day before that... On December 29th, my friend Vinodh had his foot on the US soil... I stayed along with him at his sister's residence for the next 2 days. I also had a good start for the new year. On Jan 1st, we went to a temple at Irving (near Dallas) in the morn... and I had dinner at my brother's home later in the evening. Ajit (my friend in TAMU) came to Dallas on the next day and so, we planned to spend this weekend with Vinodh at his sister's home. Now, I am watching some good movies during my stay here and time is going on great...

MY GOLDEN PERIOD OF LEARNING

My graduate study at Univ of Texas at Dallas (USA) teaches me far more than mere academics. Every programming project involved in my course-work makes me think hard, and puts me in a simulated work-environment with milestones and deadlines. I had to dwell on the programming logic, project design, and coding patterns & techniques. Meanwhile, I am keeping an eye on the global scenario for the I.T industry, getting first-hand Tech news from my newsletters, and observing the activities of the I.T Big-shots. I am as well in the process of learning the marketable skills which include the most prominent languages such as J2EE, and .NET C#. I would like to take up certification for Java and CCNA during my Summer.

The various career seminars that I attended gave me an insight into how to shape my career to achieve my goals. Further on being away from my parents, I had to take care of my bank transactions and expenditures. Handling money is always an interesting job - It gives freedom in the midst of responsibility. There is yet another valuable feeling that some may miss out while in India. It is the gift of experiencing the solitude, which itself is a nice feeling... creative ideas & wholesome thoughts are triggered all of a sudden while being in solitude. It is so much that I have learnt in the past 4 months... and lots more to be learnt in the next 2 years of my M.S degree. Doubtlessly, it is my golden period of learning...

AN ODD SCENARIO...

I could clearly make out one inference about the I.T industry in US from the insight that I gained from the technical reviews and some economy-forecast pandits. The Economy in US is rising like a sun at dawn... But the job market is having its bad days. This is a weird scenario that nobody could have expected 5 years ago. It was a general assumption that Economy of a nation is directly proportional to the job scenario in that nation. But here is an odd scene in US, where economy is climbing up the ladder, while jobs are being offshored (exported) to countries like India. Thats a great news to INDIA, but at the cost of salary cut-offs and job lay-outs in US. I am not just talking about the IT industry alone. The offshoring has taken its place strong enough in all other industries such as customer-call centres, medical transcriptions, etc... Altogether, it is an odd scenario displayed in US. This very clear from the year end news which is stated as:

1. Jobless claims fall to nearly 3-year low.
2. The year 2003 has been stock market's first winning year since 1999.

What more evidence do we need for oddity.