(pic courtesy: flickr user yggg)

Lifedev.net has a great article on some life lessons to be learnt from the Opening Ceremony of the recent Beijing Olympics. The gist of it is in the following points:

1. Step outside your comfort zone
2. Hard work 
3. Always strive for better (for yourself)
4. Do your homework
5. Work around obstacles
6. Thing big. Really BIG.
7. The details pay off.

Read the full article here.

A great list of 20 tech habits, that can make you effective computer users. A lot of helpful advise here - ranging from telecommuting to automatic backups to reminder tools to password management. All in all, I think it is a good collection. 

Read the full article here. 

Warning: Annoying irritating PC world article, which splits the article into 4 pages, and you have to click ‘Next’ after every 5 habits. Grr.

Google has just announced that, it will be releasing a beta of a new open source browser named Chrome tomorrow. By the looks of it, Google has been developing this thing for quite some time. It seems pretty advanced and very cool. It is based on the Mozilla and the Webkit libraries. Some nice things that can be said from what I have read:

• super tabs - completely multi-threaded
• sandboxing - for more security
• a new virtual machine for javascript.

What is more, in true google style, Google has released this info in a very different way - in the way of a comic book ! Read the very cool comic here.

Read more about Chrome on Techcrunch and on the official google blog.

Update: If you have already downloaded chrome, go and type about:internets . LOL. It is an awesomely funny easter egg.

Brittney Badger in her flickr set, dissects household appliances, places them in beautiful patterns on a white background and photographs them. This was one of her college projects. Just Beautiful. See here for more of her gadgets inside-out.

(via boingboing)

Today I want to share a very cool piece of info, that I learnt yesterday. The days I get home early, I get to see Vijay TV’s Bhakthi program series. Some very interesting stories. All told by very well versed people. There is one gentleman who is talking about Abirami Andhadhi, and he was explaining the meaning of the name - Abirami. He split up Abirami into Abi - ramya == Now beautiful. He was explaining as to how, the Goddess is ‘Now beautiful’ always. I think that is a pretty cool thing. The ultimate example of ‘living for the present’.

For the theologically inclined - you may recognize Abirami as the Goddess of fame at Thirukadayur - and the story of Abirama battar. The battar was once meditating, entranced by the Goddess in Bhakti. The then king decided to test the battar, and asked what day it was ; and in a whim, Abirama Battar says, it is a full moon day (whereas, in actuality, it was the new moon day). As the evening approaches, Abirama battar starts composing and reciting Abirami Andhaadi, a collection of 100 verses. Towards the end, the Goddess comes to the rescue of her devotee, by tossing her nose ring (ear-ring?) on the sky, and the king sees it as the moon itself. The king realizes his mistake of doubting the battar, and asks for forgiveness.

For the naasthikally inclined (non-theological) - you may recognize Abirami as the name that Kamal keeps on mumbling in the movie Guna. Abiraaami Abiraaami.

Update: On recommendation from the CHO (chief home officer) — explanation of what andhaadi is, is also important. Andhaadis have a common feature - Each verse starts with the word in which the previous verse ends. That is pretty cool in its own right. 

Krishna jayanthi (aka gokulashtami) was celebrated with great gusto at home yesterday. Lord Krishna is my wife’s favourite God in the Hindu Pantheon. She considers this God as ‘her friend’ :).

Lord Krishna marble idol decorated with Tulsi.

For non-Indian readers, read more on Krishna Jayanthi here.

gangotri, originally uploaded by g_c_mouli.

The Bhagirathi roars down the Garhwal Himalayas. This is about 50 feet from the GMVN resthouse where we stayed.

Varalakshmi vritham was celebrated with all pomp and glory at home yesterday. For more on this festival check out the wikipedia page.

It was a beautiful misty morning on Thursday, when I went to pick up my parents from the Bangalore Railway station. The mysore side of the station offers some very good loco-viewing angles. Ok, now you get the gist. I get very excited when I see locomotives

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(I wish I had a camera phone with a better resolution or I wish I had taken my dig camera with me).

By far the best Dilbert strip, I have ever read.

Kudos to Scott Adams.