Moved to GNOME 3 ...

I was experimenting with GNOME 3 over the weekend on my OpenSuSE 11.4 Desktop.  First I tried the One-Click install which actually screwed up my desktop completely.   After analyzing little more and studying various forums on the internet, I opted the 'zypper'  approach which worked great for me.

I used the GNOME 3:Stable repository thru zypper to install GNOME 3 on my OpenSuSE desktop and this is what I got.   It looks beautiful and appealing.   My first experience has been pretty smooth.   In minutes I was able to get my applications configured against the new scintillating desktop.    My first view ... "GNOME 3 is a completely new approach to desktop users"  - far better than Windows 7 and its predecessors.   GNOME 3 is going to be default with next OpenSuSE community edition (after 11.4) - but I am taking an early look at it and is planning to file some defects to improve the desktop computing exprience.

If you are a serious desktop user, I urge you try this.....I am sure you would love it.

Kudos to the GNOME community !     

Art of Parenting - Gene, Generate, Generation

I was pondering over the word "Generation" and I could kinda extract a few meaningful words from it to justify my title here.
Gene,  Generate, Ration  are contained inside Generation

Gene -   is a unit of heredity in a living organism.
Ration - supply of essential needs

So, putting it all together, as a parent, your duty is to bestow essential needs in form of knowledge, creativity, socialization and culture in your children.   Once that is rationed, there would be a constant supply of these virtues to them.   As your children grow, it gets internalized inside their genes.    Thus, I do firmly believe that this virtue is passed down to generations below as a heredity.

As a responsible parent, by doing this, you ensure that you not only serve your children but a generation there after.

Fun with English

Heard this in a program presided by Suki Sivam in Hosur.   

English is a very funny but beautiful language.   Humans are habituated animals.   They tend to do the same thing again and again as they gain the know how  and become comfortable in doing it.    It becomes their HABIT.   

Let us decipher this special word  H-A-B-I-T.

So
        Removing 'H'  -     'A BIT" is left for you to live upto to your legacy.

        Removing 'A'  -     You still have the "BIT" with your wisdom in you.

        Removing 'B'  -     "IT" is still there with you and IT will remain in you.

Habits are etched hard into your soul which is hard to erase.

Secret behind successful ventures!

I was reading a literature a few days back on successful ventures and was pondering around this topic for few days.    I do feel that the following are critical elements for any venture to be successful

a. Timing  
              The need of the hour
b. Quick turn around time
              How fast the first deliverable is made
c.  Quality of the first outcome
               In terms of performance and reliability 
d.  Right cost 
              People are ready to pay as long as there is quality in it)
e.  Confidentiality
             Do not talk about it till you have finalized your goal and ready      

Let me give you two great examples from the Indian context

Maruti Car   :   In early 80s when only Premier Padminis and Ambassador cars were seen, people were fed up and wanted to change.   Maruti Suzuki took timely advantage of this situation and delivered its first car (the small car "The red Maruti 800") which had the modern looks, superb pick for those days and the ability to easily maneuver.    And after that there is no looking back for Maruti Udyog.

Volvo Bus :     Volvo was quick to realize that there was a need for fast and technically advanced buses and trucks which Tata and Ashok Leyland were unable to produce.   They quickly introduced the Volvo buses.   This was quickly accepted by numerous travel operators which made travel so comfortable and fast.
Ofcourse, there are many other examples too, but these two are the flashy ones that came to my immediately.  

So, it is critical to consider the above 5 mantras before you start your venture and have a detailed plan in place.

World Chess Championship comes to India (Chennai)

It is heartening to learn that the World chess championship is going to be held in Chennai in 2011.    This is simply nothing but a visbile accredition to our country as a critical chess playing nation.   I also read that out of 20 International Grandmasters from India, 10 are from Tamilnadu.    What a remarkable achievement from this South Indian state.

This shows the intellectual capability of the nation and most of the credit goes to the prevailing education system and the unity and diversity of the country.   

I am extremly proud to be an Indian.

What is the next big thin(g)k from Microsoft ?

A few weeks back someone told me that Microsoft is working on Windows 8 which is slated to be released sometime in 2012. I am given to understand that there are several users who are yet to make a switch to Windows 7 from XP; especially the enterprise desktop users. I wonder if there is really a need for Windows 8 at all? I don't want to see Microsoft repeating the same mistake which it did with Windows VISTA which brought down its reputation. I think enough research and public opinion needs to be sought before investing in developing the next desktop OS. We are pretty satisfied with the stability of Windows 7 and we would like to see it serving us for next few years like Windows XP did. Microsoft did a great job in the mid 80s making the end-user computing for the common man easy through DOS and it lived for many years till Microsoft made the great shift to the Windows world. It might want to adopt a similar strategy for smartphone market. But, it has to be smarter this time as it is not alone today.  I am particularly keen in the Nokia smartphone with Windows in it and the following demonstration sounds promising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6oidCTUw4s&feature=player_embedded

Google Story - Motivational Teachers...

In 1996, when Microsoft had already made its name in the PC Industry as a software gaint, many college students dreamt to be the next Bill Gates.  But, they did not know how to achieve the glory, what should be done?   Many of them wanted to join the company to be part of the booming wave and also make lots of money.    This is probably true with Standford students too.

The internet started to show its face.    Search engines such as Altavista, Infoseek and Yahoo emerged inside the Netscape Browser, but were either slow or could not fetch useful needed information at will.


When Brin and Page were studying at Stanford, they just not only had inspiring friends, but also inspiring teachers.  I think one of them wanted to download the world wide web and study it intensely to see how to meaningfully rank order the links to get meaning results of search queries.    I am sure the idea would have emerged by means of some useful and intense brainstorming with geeks and professors.   It is not just the motivation that made the two lads perceive their research but also the support the university gave them with lot of faith in their project which finally gave GOOGLE to us.

It would be nice to introspect this aspect and extract some best practices that could be followed in grooming and shaping the student-teacher relationship right from high school to graduate school.   I will try to talk about this to more and more teachers I meet henceforth.  

I will try to blog more about this aspect and my findings moving forward.