Silicon Valley Blogzine

See and Smile :)

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:52:00 +0000

See and Smile :)

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:42:00 +0000

Pedal your way on the information superhighway

Incredible India Wins First Gold in Beijing

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:48:00 +0000

Truly a glorious moment for Indian Sports. Hope this is just the beginning of India having a presence in International Sports. Abhinav Bindra ended the 28 year drought by bringing Gold to India.

What was even more surpirising was some beat me to updating his wikipedia entry :)

vallyblogzine does not stand a chance in spelling bee

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:11:00 +0000

I thought I had uncovered a spelling blunder on a recent trip to Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. How could a factory that claims itself to be a mecca for chocolates make such a huge mistake I mused. Came home and did a quick verification. Made me realize that I should not be allowed anywhere in the vicinity of Spelling bees.

Green Tourists

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:07:00 +0000

It's a cult in San Francisco to be green. Don't beleive me? Maybe these pictures will convince you.

Segway Assembly session in full swing.

Hybrid Taxis rub shoulders with Horse carriages

Mr.Clown uses totally organic eco friendly vegetable dyes to color himself.

Ok, I admit, I was pulling a fast one about Mr.Clown :)

See and Smile :)

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:02:00 +0000

Took some interesting snaps on a visit to San Francisco. Will be releasing them in phases.

Talking to the Tanzanian Home Ministry - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:15:00 +0000

More faxes sent, more calling cards, a conversation with the Police chief later i've tracked down my mother's file. I was thrilled that I had uncovered the needle in a haystack. So now for the sad part of the story.
The processing required US $25 to be sent along with the initial application. My mom said she had $25 in cash and would send it along with the application. Mr.Smarty Pants (me) screamed at her for not being thoughtful on such things. I told her i'll take care of that part. Promptly went to Bank of America and got a Cashier's check in favor of the ministry, walked straight to a FedEx office nearby and sent the package to India for my mother to send it along with her application. Needless to say I felt pretty proud of myself. Now when I called and spoke to the Police chief he said the application was stalled because they expected cash and not a cashiers check. Apparently encashing the cashier check would cost them and was not acceptable. Send cash through DHL or FedEx he advised. I did a mental revisit of everything my mother said. There was a mention of $25 (no mention of check, DD, cashier's check, in favor of etc). So why did I use my intelligence?

My mind quickly worked out a brief synopsis of the damage:

Cashiers Check for $25 + FedEx to India - $70
Calling Cards to Tanzania - $20
$25 cash + FedEx to Tanzania - $115
Lesson learnt by Mr.Smarty Pants - Priceless.

Talking to the Tanzanian Home Ministry

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:11:00 +0000

I am in the process of trying to do the impossible. My mom needs a good conduct certificate from the criminal investigation department of the ministry of home affairs in Tanzania for her to obtain the US green card. She lived in Tanzania between 1974 and 1983; The US consulate has provided us with information on where we can obtain this certificate which according to the documentation they provided should take 2 weeks. It's going to be almost a month and we have no idea what the status on the paper work is. So here I am now trying to determine what the status of the paperwork is. So far I have managed to establish a phone conversation with a person in the ministry who has asked me to Fax details of the case again. I have faxed the information but now I have to call again to know what the status on the "requesting status request" is. Add to that timezone differences, language differences, bad international calling card quality and you know what I am up against.
On the bright side I got a phone number from the Internet and a cheap calling card all courtesy of the internet (can't imagine what we would be doing without the internet and internet commerce) and above all a fairly courteous individual at the other end. Hope this story has a good ending.

Monkey On

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:49:00 +0000

Yahoo! has had a beta service called Search Monkey that has been picking up some steam off late. Apart from some of the cool plugins for linkedIn, Yelp and such I have seen some very valuable plugins off late especially for software developers.

Check out the Java Documentation once you add the Java Doc Plugin.

To add these plugins go to the Gallery

Pick and choose whatever you like.

Lost in Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:10:00 +0000

With the Olympics round the corner, China better gear up if this sign translating the name of the chinese restaurant is any indication. More on this here

Sweet!

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Rajinikanth's next movie Kuselan is all set to open in the US. I have heard Rajinikanth fans are what one would call a notch above the rest. Have had friends having Rajini prefixed to their names so the attendance register would have "Rajini Prabhu", "Rajini Bhaskar"... You get the idea!.

Of late it appears there is a mini industry attempting to come up with creative marketing techniques to advertise Indian films abroad. First we heard about Akshay Kumar's cut out being erected in Toronto for his latest movie. Now how can our thalaivar fall behind.

So what is the latest whacky idea? Rajinikanth Candies!!! Don't beleive me? I present Uniform Resource Locator as evidence

Follow-up on the blog level post.

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:37:00 +0000

I was curious to find out how the blog readability test worked so I tried out some of the most widely used sites. The results cleary illustrate the flaws in the tool or Google really needs to rethink it's usability :)
As an aside it appears that an IQ of a junior high student should suffice in understanding what women want. I guess I should have paid more attention in my junior high classes. Oh well!

Google

TV Reviews

What Women Want?

Beware : You are entering Genius Territory

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:36:00 +0000

If you find the content of my blog ridiculous and don't get what I am trying to say, it's not on account of my horrendous writing but because according to this rating my blog requires you to be mensa certified. I really did not realize I had the ability to write such profound stuff. Time to get some tips from sundar's blog

Movie Reviews

You think you can dance

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:26:00 +0000

A resounding Yes, this couple can. Check it out for yourself.

What are your favorite sites?

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:07:00 +0000

Time had an interesting article about the 10 sites we cannot live without. I guess this list varies from person to person and from the list I would say I can live without most of those sites. Youtube was prominent in it's absence.

Step Back UN - Make way for Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:42:00 +0000

Oil Oil everywhere not a drop to burn say the republicans as they would like to start drilling in ANWAR and off the coast of Florida and California. They face an uphill task as the democrats are strongly opposed. So one way around this stalemate could possibly come in the form of an surprise package. Drilling off the southern coast of Florida was a problem, but what about the northern coast of Cuba. Given the hypocrisy we've seen in the past with the "not in my backyard" we may actually see a breakthrough in US-Cuba relations. I beleive Oil and not UN holds the key for world peace.

Hooray!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:02:00 +0000

So India beat Bhutan in overtime in Soccer. The entire population of Bhutan including the king of Bhutan were at hand and seated in the first row in the stadium to see the mighty Indians given them a 2-1 drubbing. The King accepted defeat and hinted that the Bhutanese goalkeeper's reflexes were not good enough to stop the Indian goal in the last minute. He suggested the queen might undergo extensive goalkeeper training from Schumacher in Germany. Prasanetajit Banerjee the victorious captain of the Indian team was overheard growling to the Bhutanese captain "You better start training your 3 month old baby prince right away if you want to stand a chance against my battletested Indian Tigers in the next Good for Nothing championships".

IT Sucks!!

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:48:00 +0000

This is in response to Sundar's post about the IT profession. On a purely personal note, when I go to desi birthday parties I see some odd dudes hanging out all alone playing hockey with their nans and koftas in the corner. I try to go and make small talk with them and almost always they are non IT dudes who just don't know how to blend in. To me talking to these dudes is refreshing, it's enriching and almost always a learning experience. I learn about FDA fast track for drugs, hear about how someone invented a cashew opener in Mangalore and now being exported to every African country, how there is a plan to orally dispense insulin just like the mist that cures bronchitis, how someone determines the optimal temperature of oil to fry nachos. Ok enough examples, you get the idea. The choice of listening to this anytime beats out listening to why Yahoo! should get acquired, or why twitter is cool or why facebook is not worth 15 billion or playing hockey with stale nans and kofta balls.

Kitchen Remodelling and Marriage

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:12:00 +0000

When someone recently asked me if I had marriage jitters prior to getting married, I scrubbed my memory to go back into the tape archive in my brain. No record found came the response. So when I bought up this topic she said she did not find any record of jitters in her brain archives either. So here were two individuals who were either oblivious of what they were in for or were totally indifferent to the whole idea. In any case we now understand what marriage jitters are now as we are attempting to remodel our kitchen. The contractor gave us a picture of the would be new kitchen and gave us the dimensions, told us about the embellishments and the financial damage the whole episode would cost. We signed on the dotted line and now have new kitchen jitters.

Feelings in the family after Hillary Clinton lost

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:06:00 +0000

My Mom : Is it really over?? Are'nt there more primaries?
Wife : I knew it, America is a country of MCP's; Now watch Obama will not even bother with considering her for the VP slot as he'll feel inadequate and insecure
Son : Is it over? Can we now switch back to sponge-bob on tv?
Daughter : Whatever!!
Me : Now that Obama is nominated, Mccain should start working on his concession speech.

Show Me The Money

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Sat, 24 May 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Satya Nadella, the key executive for Microsoft Live Search had this to say while shutting down the Book Search initiative.
"We believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer and content partner," Nadella wrote."

This translates to "show me the money" and not necessarily all hard problems are worth pursuing. Now that Microsoft has thrown in the towel, will Google follow suit on this one?

Steve Ballmer Egged.

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:55:00 +0000

Check out this video out where the Microsoft CEO is being egged by an irate Hungarian customer.

I Like Obama

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Why do I like Obama? He talks with conviction and makes the tough choices. He could have easily followed the herd instead he took the harder route on the merits of the case. Good call Obama. Here's what he had to say on Mccain and Bush's so called Tough Talk.
"They aren't telling you the truth. They are trying to fool you and scare you because they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits," said Obama. "But it's not going to work. Not this time, not this year."

Mechanics of Business

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:24:00 +0000

If I were to take a course in business strategy I woul probably get an F-; Here's why. Today Verizon and Mozilla announced support for LiMo a rival wireless platform to Google's Android. I can totally understand why Verizon would do that, they own the networks and they want to own the data going over the networks as well. Now why would Mozilla do that. Unless my memory is failin me, was google not the company that pumped in millions of dollars into Firefox which one can easily say is the flagship product from Mozilla. What am I missing?

Cyclone Nargis

noreply@blogger.com (Silicon Valley Blogzine) — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:54:00 +0000

One of the reasons I read blogs is it points me in directions that may be of interest to me. It stimulates me and I start digging deeper. One such instances was Lakshman's blog about Cyclone Nargis. I was in Chennai when the Tsunami hit and though it did not affect me in any way I did know of people who lost their lives just because they happened to be at the Marina beach for an early morning walk. It took me a few days to recognize the magnitude of the devastation. What has happened in Burma is no different. I think this disaster has even softened the military junta which has started letting military aid flow in.

I urge people to contribute since this is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions and given that in the Internet era it takes all but minutes for such tragedies to make way for more popular headlines, it's upto us to all of us bloggers to keep it alive. In case you are wondering how you can help, here are some basic tips.

1. Go with an organization which can help most effectively in such times. E.g. Doctors without borders, Red Cross etc.
2. See if your company matches your contribution.
3. Mobilize as many people as you can think of to contrubute.

I decided not to include gruesome photos of the devastation and instead include the snap of two lovely burmese kids to symbolize hope. Hope!