Swine Flu And Pune

We all are battling with "Swine Flu". News channels are all flooded in these news only. Everyday we receive news of 1-2 persons being killed by this dangerous virus. People here in Pune are really feared with this situation. Person coughed once is also seen in doubt. We cant help on this actually, the symptoms for "Swine Flu" are not different from the normal cold, cough symptoms. People having cold or cough alone are also gathering at Naydu and other government recommended hospitals for swine flu testing. I think this is really dangerous as these people are exposing themselves among the "Swine Flu" infected people. One should get tested if one has following symptoms together: fever, cough, runny\stuffy nose, sore throat, chills, fatigue, headache. Government should educate everyone on these actual Swine Flu symptoms.

This situation will become worse in coming days. Dahi-Handi and Ganapati festivals are approaching. and They are highly celebrated in Pune. We talk about keeping 6-10 feet distance from the infected people but will we be able to control the "H1N1 virus" if people will group together for such activities?. I think, rather than government imply force on janata for not celebrating these festivals in public manner, people here should understand the current situation and act accordingly. I think we should not celebrate "Dahi-Handi" and "Sarvajnik Ganeshostav" this year. People can worship Ganesh Murthi at their home. But in this way also you cant control on people gathering when it comes to the "Ganapati Visarjan". Better option is not to celebrate any festival. The ideal approach would be to observe curfew in the city for at least 10 days. and government should provide medicines to infected persons to their home.

Another thing i observed here is about the Masks distribution. I had to take pair of 3 layered mask for Rs 50. The similar mask was previously available for Rs 5. This is not the condition where we should look for our own benefit, and try to make profit out of the situation. Also even if city is facing shortage of the N-95 masks, everyone is going after them. Doctors have suggested that not everyone need N-95 masks and it is only for relatives of infected personnel. Two 3-layered masks overlapping one another will do.

For the precaution measures i am trying to remain away from Pune. Because right now i don't have any major responsibility work in office, I have taken leaves from office and taking rest here in kalyan. But i wont be able to do this for long time. Like me it is not possible for many people to keep away from work and leave Pune , my advice to them would be to drink a lot of water and juices, Vitamin 'C' food while working.

Considering the population and poverty of the nation, it is really worst thing happened that "Swine Flu" got spread in India. Till now the patients found are from cities only. If "Swine Flu" reaches to villages, then it would be real disaster. Let us hope, before this happens we will take control over it.

"About Me" Pages

I was going through web to have new way to implement personal profile page. Here I found 60 beautiful and effective About Me pages.

~ Kiran

Pronounce Name Correctly! :)

This one is really a useful site. In our daily project work, we interact with Americans who have unfamiliar names. This site helps us to pronounce their name correctly. "How to say that Name" : http://www.howtosaythatname.com/

I am glad to see my name in the database. http://howtosaythatname.com/component/option,com_mtree/task,search/Itemid,4/searchword,Kiran/

Check Your Hearing! :)

They say that it is common for people who are over 25 years of age to not be able to hear above 15kHz. I tested my hearing. I can hear up to 17Khz. Check yours. :)  http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/

KeePass : Password Manager

I have so many passwords with me for every website I visit. Other than that there are Windows Network login, Net Banking, Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, My Office Email passwords. Hussss...the list is endless. It was really difficult task for me to keep remembering all those passwords. Many of the times, I was dependable on 'Forget Password' link to reset my password and set new one. And you will agree me, it is really boredom task.


Thanks to KeePass. This software has really saved me from this trouble. KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps me to manage my passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key. So you only have to remember one single master password to unlock the whole database.

I am currently using it and very much satisfied with it. :)

These features (http://keepass.info/features.html) and screenshots (http://keepass.info/screenshots.html) will help the first time users.

~ Kiran

Search Engine for Videos!

Truveo : I was in search for such site so long. Earlier i used to run around video sharing sites (There are so many. YouTube, MySpace, Google Videos, Metacafe etc) for searching any particular video.

This site does this whole thing for me. This search engine lets me find and play videos from all over the web.[:)]

~ Kiran

Animoto!

There is a lot of fun on the Internet! Animoto is one of them.

This web application turns your pictures into very interesting movie trailers. and you require only 3 steps to get it. Just a) get your images b) get music background and c) provide some details.

The only single problem is you can produce, remix, and share videos freely of 30 second length only. But it is worth to try this out. :)
Here is my first composition.[:D]

10 Minute Mail!

Today I came across really a fascinating website. 10 Minute Mail.

Many a times you need to provide your email address while downloading any software or file and then respond to a confirmation link to prove it. More often you don’t trust the website or you want to avoid bunch of spam getting after that; you end up not downloading the file\software.

This is the one area the website targets. The website provides you a temporary e-mail address. Any e-mails sent to that address will show up automatically on the web page. You can read them, click on links, and even reply to them. The e-mail address will expire after 10 minutes.

~ Kiran

Online photo editor!

PiZap is an online photo editor. You can play with some demo photos or upload your own. You can then add text, stickers, change faces and a whole lot more. Here's an example.

~ Kiran

Cut on your arm!!

Cut anything (lover's name??) you want on your arm!!! Go here

माझे मराठीला योगदान

Proud to be Marathi? Yes, Then let us be ready to enrich our language with some new ideas,with some new words.
In our daily routine many times we use english words as is. The website http://www.marathishabda.com/shabda/ is platform to introduce marathi words for them. I have pasted author's preface below as is.

कठीण व उगीचच मोठे असलेले, उदा महाविद्यालय, केशकर्तनालय, मराठी शब्द वापरताना फार त्रास होतो ना? अनेक ईंग्लिश शब्द तर आपण जसेच्यातसे वापारतो. कारण त्यांना पर्यायी शब्दच नाहीत.
तसेच काही वाक्ये वापरताना गोंधळ उडतो. उदा “मी त्याचा वडील आहे” हे योग्य की नाही? मग काय म्हणायला हवे? प्रश्न पडतो..
माझ्या मातृभाषेसाठी मी काहीतरी केले पाहीजे हे नेहमी वाटते ना? चला आपण सगळे मिळून मराठी ला वेगळी ऊंची देउया. ह्या जागेचा वापर करुन आपण ते साध्य करु शकतो.
हे कसे करता येइल ते मी तुम्हाला सांगतो. आपल्याला एखादा शब्द खटकला की, त्याचे मराठी बारसं कसे करायचे त्याचा विचार करायला सुरुवात करायची. एखादा पर्यायी शब्द सापडला की, ह्या जागेवर येउन, तो दान करायचा. समजा तुम्ही आणि ईतरांनीही काही दानं दिली असतील तर, त्या वेळी मी एक मतं चाचणी घेइन. ज्या पहील्या ३ शब्दांना जास्त मते असतील ते शब्द मी आपल्या शब्द संचयात नोंदवेन.
तुम्ही दिलेल्या दानाबद्दल मी तुम्हाला प्रत्येक निवडलेल्या शब्दाला एक दान देणार. ज्यामुळे तुमच्या “योगदाना” खरे मुल्यं सगळ्यांना ह्या जागेच्या माध्यमातुन दिसेल.
आपला एक सामाजिक कट्टा पण आहे. - http://www.marathishabda.com/forum ह्या कट्ट्यावर बरीच दिग्गज मंडळी तुम्हाला भेटू शकतील. तुम्ही त्याच्याबरोबर चर्चा करू शकता. मतं चाचणी सुध्दा ईथेच घेतली जाईल. ह्या कट्ट्यावर जाऊन तुम्हाला एक “वापरू” बनवावा लागेल.
आता प्रश्न राहीला तो नवे शब्द कसे तयार करायचे ह्याचा. हे पहा- कालच मी एक नवीन शब्द वाचला. हा पर्यायी मराठी शब्द कसा वाटतो पहा.

Ghost fishing: पाताळकोळी, भुत्याकोळी
तुम्हीही असे नवीन शब्द सुचवा. आपण सगळे मिळून नवीन मराठी शब्द तयार करू. नवीन शब्द तयार करण्यासाठी मी काही वाटा (Categories) करतोय, उदा, “घरातील शब्द”. आपण इथून सुरूवात करूया. अजुन पुढच्या सुचना मी देइनच.

चला तर या माझ्याबरोबर…

~ Kiran

Mail Forwards!!! - My New Blog!

This blog will hold all the good forwards i have ever got.
Here is the link for it. Mail Forwards!!!
Watch out for more and more forwards on this blog. They could be helpful to you pleasing your mates.

Online file conversion...

Zamzar:

You may have come across the situation when you have some files and don't have softwares or utilities to run them. Website Zamzar will help you in that case.
You just need to upload the file you want to convert and choose the format to convert that file to on the Zamzar website. Within few minutes you will get link in your mailbox for accessing the converted file.

~Kiran

Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation

While surfing the internet, i came across a very good article.
Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation

~ Kiran

Want to download YouTube videos???

There are two very simple ways i see to download YouTube videos.

1. Kiss YouTube way:
If suppose your YouTube URL is something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs. You just need to add word "kiss" in front of the youtube.com in your URI. The page in this modified URL (http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs) will have the link to save that clip.

2. Keepvid way: http://keepvid.com/
Keepvid is a very good site for downloading videos from any site. On Keepvid's first page, you just need to choose the site you want to download from and copy the link of the page with the video on it and paste it in the textbox provided.

~ Kiran

Car Puzzle!

Solution:

















~ Kiran

RSS In Plain English

This is really nice video to get to know what really RSS feed means.

~ Kiran

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia, March 22,2008)
Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?
Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.
By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.
That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization. The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today." I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

Difference between Focusing on Problems and Focusing on Solutions

Difference between Focusing on Problems and Focusing on Solutions

Case 1

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do...?? …………………………………………………..They used a pencil.

Case 2

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.
But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.


Moral: "Always look for simple solutions,
Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems"

~ Kiran

Good web link differentiating CLR and JVM

http://www.itwriting.com/dotnet4.php#jvm

~ Kiran