Outsourcing Education

My daughter ( a sophomore at Lynbrook high) is taking SAT prep classes from Vienova.com - an Indian coaching service for grade 4 th to 12th. There are special programs for SAT prep. It was a April last year when we were first contacted by a sales guy from Vienova. I was kind of amazed at the t knowledge of sales rep on American education system .. ( Its sometime hard for me as a father to exactly remember which all courses and what options my daughter can exercise in a high school - They are just too many!).

"Okay ..let me check your website first", thinking to put off this call and get on with my evening plan .. Sure Sir , I will hold and guide you thru it if you are in front of your browser." It was just a click away. "hmm ..these sales guys"

The website , unlike Indian business websites, was clean and appealing. I didnt want to go into the cost details as of now. I wanted to arrange something for my daughter coz SAT is so important and she can use some help in math , but wasnt it t oo early ?

But he talked me into it. The cost model is compelling. I could have given ths resource to my daughter for one full year at a price charged by likes of Princeton in 2 months.

"So how would you deliver it ?" ...
" oh thats simple. We have our own video chat client and white board over the web. I am sure you have high speed access at home and your daughter has a lappy. Let me arrange a free demo session for your family and will be great if you could join to see the session. BTW our service is one to one coaching to ensure 100 % attention"

That really took me in. My daughter is studying at Vienova for last 9 months and making good progress. I am happy she is using the laptop for one good reason other than cranking her iPOD ....

A tool bar for SAP

I am pretty convinced that Firefox is the new interface to computing. The reasons ..

1. It works faster (even on Windows)
2. It works on Linux
3. It works on Power PCs based Linux (such as PS3)
4. It has a mini version for Win mobile

and so on and on ...

If above is true .. its very simple to comprehend that every single application (web based or clnt server type) need to have a button or toolbar on Firefox .. Coz this is the entry point ..

Being so obvious to me , I thought there must me dozens of tool bars for SAP (if not not more) .. I googled it in hope of fishing few good ones and boosing my productivity ..

To my surprise , there was none .. again ..this time on yahoo search but no luck ..

Hey ..wait a minute ..hasn't anyone created a single toolbar for SAP .. wow .. SAP must have spent billions on adapting itself to internet but yet no toolbar .. are we in senses ? am I talking sense ???

And then it ocurred to me .. I need to create a tool bar for SAP on Firefox ..

One full weekend and lots if learning in xml and javascript .. here we have the first alpha of SAP TOO BAR ...

Enjy .. more on vision next time

Running Linux on PS3

Just now finished installing YDL5.0.2 on my PS3 and started writing this log. Installation , I must say was flawless. It picked up my wireless keyboard/ mousepad. Configurimg wi fi was a piece of cake. Dont want give the technical details here as there is ton of information all ver the place..

Few disappointments

1. Its not as fast as I had expected. May be its emulation or whatever technical crap ..it same as Mandrake 10.2 running on my 1997 Celeron . ...well ..slightly better

2. Flash 9.00 is still not available for power pcs ..so my son couldn't play his pokemon stuff

3. Enlightenment crashed multiple time ..


The overall concept is pretty good .. you can have a fulll blown gaming thing and a full blown desktop in less than 1000 bucks .. and it doubles up as hig hdef TV too .. I think its ghell of a pace saving and make sense. It might take another six months and few more upgardes for PS3 to arrive ...but sure it will ..

Wii v/s PS3 - Emotional issues

I wanted to give my son the best deal on his birthday and of course wanted the value for money spent. Looking at the feature list , I went for PS3. Though it was double the price I kept on as I wanted to buy something that will last at least couple of years before the pressure for new Gizmo start buckling my son (and me)

Couple of my friends bought Wii around the same time. Amazing things these little toys brought to my behavior! For first , I found myself advocating PS3. We got into almost feature by feature comparison. Of course nothing beats PS3. What brought me down was the fact that my son was gradually moving into Wii camp.

Here I was .. after making hell of an effort in research and making sure that I buy a pricier/ better product (at 750 bucks), I was explaining to kids that PS3 is a far superior machine .. It can play Blue rays and DVDs. You can hook USB external discs with all your pics, videos and songs. You can of course stream the media from any of your laptop. You browse internet and play "You Tube" wiith fair amount of speed and easy ..(well little difficulty) .. and on top of all this ..you can install Linux ..

Here goes my son (and his friend) .,...but who the hell want all these ? ...all we wanna do is hit he tennis ball ..

No Celebration For Thousands of Highly-Skilled Future Americans this July 4th

No Celebration For Thousands of Highly-Skilled Future Americans this July 4th: "No Celebration For Thousands of Highly-Skilled Future Americans this July 4th

Thousands of legal, English-speaking, highly-skilled Future Americans miss rare opportunity to apply for employer-sponsored green cards after immigration agencies announced on Monday that no further applications would be accepted until October.
Source: Immigration Voice
Jul 02, 2007 22:14:59 Click to see PDF Version of this Press Release


(PRLog.Org) – June 12 was a presumably joyous ocassion for several highly-skilled professionals. The Department of State, in a sweeping move, announced that they would accept applications from all highly-skilled workers (sans one minor category) to a) adjust status to a permanent resident (ie apply for a Green Card, which is the final stage), b) apply for interim benefits while they wait the adjudication of their Green Card, such as the right to work and right to travel for spouses who were on dependent visas.

As people across the United States prepare for 4th of July celebrations today, thousands of legal, highly-skilled, English-speaking Future Americans are distraught over recent press releases by the Dept. of State and the USCIS which initially provided a glimmer of hope but later turned to despair. This “glimmer of hope” would have provi"

VentureBeat » Elementeo’s 13-year-old CEO, highlight of TiECON

Elementeo’s 13-year-old CEO, highlight of TiECON

VentureBeat » Elementeo’s 13-year-old CEO, highlight of TiECON: "


By Mark Coker 05.19.07

TiECON 2007, the big technology conference in Santa Clara, Calif., kicked off yesterday.

The buzz on the expo floor was about Silicon Valley gaming startup Elementeo and its precocious 13-year old founder and chief executive, Anshul Samar. “We inject fun into education,” the fast talking entrepreneur confidently proclaimed, touting his new fantasy role playing board game which he believes will change the way kids learn chemistry.

The conference featured keynote presentations from the likes of Marc Benioff (Salesforce.com), Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures) and Tim O’Reilly (Web 2.0 thinker), but the young Samar better represented the theme of this year’s conference: “The New Face of Entrepreneurship.”

VentureBeat interviewed the diminutive executive at Elementeo’s TiECON booth. Like other charismatic Silicon Valley CEOs – think Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison or Marc Benioff – Mr. Samar exudes confidence, vision and a passion to change the world. He’s more articulate than many CEOs four times his age."

New battle ground for OS makers

Worldwide total smart-phone device market
OS vendor Q4 06 unit sales % market share Q4 05/Q4 06% growth unit sales
Symbian 14.7 million 72.5 37.38
Linux 3.4 million 16.9 3.03
PalmSource 400,000 2 -20
Microsoft 900,000 4.6 125
RIM 800,000 3.8 55
Total 20.2 million 100"

foldedspace.org: Getting Things Done

Hey this is methodology to unclutter life .. reduce the stress ... .. Here are some graphics I copied from this place .. hope no copyrights infringement here .. GTD .."Getting things done" is best selling book from Allen David .. check out reviews on Amazon

There is a Lotus Notes app called GTD Template thats pretty much inspired by this methodology .. GDT for Lotus Notes . Ever since I installed this this my productivity has really gone up ..






foldedspace.org: Getting Things Done: "

What is Shutri

Since Vedas ... meaning of word "Shutri" has changed. From "revelation of highest order" (see Vedic perspective) to "Plain Lie" (see current perspective). I have not seen a word change its meaning so upside down ..180 degree .. I couldn't find a better word to start my bLog .. SHUTRI will cover variety of thoughts from different walks of life .. some true ...some "Not that true" .. some heard ..some remembered ..and some conceived .. Welcome ..Cheers

Vedic Perspective

Vedic Scriptures are considered “revelation” in the sense that they have been learned through the ages and come form within the course of nature. They are not a revelation from above as in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, or a revelation from the gods. Vedic Scriptures are divided into two groups. Shutri – “what is heard” . It includes Four Vedas – Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda. Brahmanas – ritual manuals Arankayas – forest trestisesz Upanishads – theological and philosophical reflections Smitri – ”what is remembered”. Large epic poems. Ramayana – Tells of Rama’s conquest to recover his wife Sita abducted by a demon, Ravana Mahabarata – India’s national epic Bhagavad Gita – a large Vedic work now called the forth veda. Puranas – mythic narratives of the principal deities. Sutras – Commentaries on the earlier Scriptures. Shastras – treatises of religious law Agamas – sectarian texts" SHUTRI is considered a higher form of “revelation” than the SAMITRI.

Current perspective

Shutri is a word politely used for a plain and simple lie !!"

Organising world's information

Well, Google has pretty interesting mission .."Organizing world's information" . Looking at the time they have spent on this mammoth task, I guess , they have been very successful. They have been able to, at least, search the web ...with high accuracy. The information,however, is not limited to web. Information is there in every bit of matter ..living or dead. To that extent the challenge is daunting and might be self defeating. And then there is a commercial aspect too. Hence ..the mission is not only organizing (world's) information but doing it in a profitable way. Discounting for commercial nature of beast, I think it makes sense to give credit to Google Engineers. Credit is due even for taking up such a huge mission and start working towards the goal (and not leaving it to hands of philosophers only.)

Since Google is (and many other search engines) are capable of searching better part of web , one question that comes to my mind is ,"why they are not organizing it ?" (Despite the stated goal)

For example, Google, with a little modification to their search engine should be able to (automatically) generate a directory of people. Depending upon web presence of a person, they should be able to create a gProfile (I hope this a new term) of an individual and then open it to individuals enabling them claim their true (web) identity. Same logic can be applied to schools, colleges, universities, companies, charities, temples and what not. This will not only enhance Google's traffic but also encourage everyone to enhance their web presence. This can also become a world wide trusted source of information in the sense claimed identities are more trustworthy and reasonable to do business with.

A slightly bigger challenge will be create a universal product catalogue. This is a difficult proposition for the fact that a product exists in so many different variables. A shirt can be so many sizes and colors and materials. Its practically impossible to define all the possible variants of a pretty small number of products. Leaving this to some future quantum technology, there is massive info organization that can be achieved with present technology and resources.

I hope Google will stick to its mission and channelize its synergy on this bigger aspect rather than replacing / packaging small applications to challenge Microsofts and Yahoo's of gone era..

Cheers

Second Life - my First experience

Forced by the media galore , I was finally made to jump into second life . My first experience , I must say , is a positive one though it took 5 attempts to register and an even number to log in. Servers were down most of the time and my office machine had protocol issues in connecting ...some firewall issue may be.

Interface does open up host of opportunities and then we all need to bring out something new. Linden guys have really pulled a dream to reality (virtual) and am pretty sure this is the way Google is heading ..with Google earth and Sketcher .. they sure have this on agenda ..I guess IBM has a big role to play here in evangelising the concept but beyond that I don't know how much commercial benefit IBM could reap . The object model will evolve beyond people , outfits and gestures. Not sure if they already have plants, companies and products defined in there .. will explore in my next visit.

Controls such as flying are still not very professional. I guess it will take another couple of releases before they reach automotive precision but they will ... SAP has done a project to link second life interface to back-end but the biggest boost ,of-course was the circuit city thing.

If you are are new there ..feel free to join ..registration is still free though land cost you real money .. and you have a friend there in Haso Hax (my second life name) ..

Feel free to add me in your friends list and see you there in 2nd life




Cheers

No doubts .. I am a Google fan

On my way back home I was thinking if I use more applications from Google than I do from Microsoft .. roughly I guess (if you take the Windows out of it) Google counted more .. let me list here for a quick check

Google Apps that I frequently use ..

1. Search .. No need to write anything here
2. Google Spreadsheet - I have even asked some of project team members to use this .. cool tool
3. Google Docs -- Did my last white paper on this .. The cool thing is you can upload docs to your blog
4. Google Apps for domains - Shutri. Com is running on GAFD
5. Google Analytics - The click list of this page is coming from Google Analytics
6. Adsense -- Those little ads on the right hand pan
7. Picassa - The tool is great and so is the web albums
8. Google Maps - Use them on both my Blackberry and notebook
9. Google Earth - I do have it on my laptop but never really used it much
10. GMail ... Haha Shutri mail is a copy of Gmail
11. Google Groups .. We started one but not much in use

Microsoft

Don't use outlook or exchange as we are on Notes .. That is one killer app down ; I am not much of music but whatever I do ..iTunes is best .. thats another killer app gone in Windows media player; My default browser is Firefox ..that takes away third of real meat ..

The ones that I use are here below

1. MS Word - Don't really know why ppl use it ..but its pretty much there
2. Excel - I love excel .. Google spreadsheets will take a while to catch up the depth of Excel
3. PowerPoint - I hate PowerPoint's but cant live without them
4 MS Project - Still no match for it on Desktop based software
6. Microsoft Movie maker -- This is the one we use for converting mini DV stuff from my web cam . Nothing else is really free

Cant think of anything else .. May be update this list after dinner but pretty much Google is going great here ..

Report on Gadhi ... Written by 8 yrs old Adi

When Gandhi was working ,India was ruled by the British. Gandhi began non-cooperation campaign movement against the British government. Gandhi did many great things for India.

One great thing, Gandhi did for the freedom of India was the Salt March. One reason why Gandhi did the Salt March was because Gandhi didn't want to buy salt from Britishers. Gandhi wanted the Indians to make their own salt. Even though the march was long, Gandhi walked 229 miles down the beach coast. The march took a lot of time to get there too. It took 24 days to get there.

Soon, because people liked Gandhi's work he was given the title Mahatma. Mahatma means ''great soul.''Gandhi got the title Mahatma because he led a holy life and shaped India.

Another great thing, Gandhi did to get India's independence was that Gandhi went on a hunger strike to avoid violence and get his way. Gandhi was put to jail by the Britishers. In jail Gandhi went on a hunger strike, this forced them to let him go. They let him go because they didn't want to be the cause of Gandhi's death.

Lastly, Gandhi taught people how to spin cotton to make their own cloth. And Indians wouldn't have to rely on British to produce their own clothes. Gandhi told all the Indian people in his group to boycott clothes from England. After getting piles of clothes Gandhi burned them. After that they made their own clothes by themselves,because they didn't want to buy clothes from the Britishers anymore. By doing so, people showed their support for Indian freedom.

Although Mahatma Gandhi was shot, he achieved many great things.

Sunil Mital - What an incredible work

I am sure we all heard about Sunil Mittal. The Bharti Telecom Dude. Bharti has a mrket cap of $ 26 Billion and a sales revenue closing by $ 4 Billion.

Competing against big India business houses like Tatas, Reliance and public sector behemoth BSNL .. Bharti has carved out a 30 % market share in matter of 4 years. A market leader amongst Indian Mobile service providers .. Bharti has done it in unique way that nbo India company has done before .. Outsourcing

Sunil realized pretty early in the game that the only way to scale up the huge business of Indian mobile industry is to outsource .. He outsourced the Network to Ericson and Seimens and total admin work (like Payroll to Billing) to IBM India .. In turn Bharti (Sunil) focussed on what matters most .. Marketing and Customer engagement ..

And now Bharti is tying up with Walmart to fix India's retail market ..

What an incredible journey .. Very rightly Fortune has done a profile on Mittal .. I am sure many more to come

Does Darwininan theory apply to Human organization ?

This has always intrigued me. Does the "survival of fittest" apply to human organizations ? .. Well looks pretty easy .. A better business organization survives .. right ? .. But what about other organizations .. Does a better nation has better chances of survival .. Does a better religion has better chances of survival .. and what is the measure of "Better" .. Is it survival ? .. who ever survives is better ..

And the next question is even more intriguing .. is there a competition between different type of human organizations .. is Nation competing with religion ?..or is there a competition between businesses and nations ? ..

Need to research more before I come back

Here I am back with next post ..

It surely does appear that Darwin is equally applicable on organizations as it is applicable to organisms .. But have we seen any extinction so far ? Religion is still around ..so are the races (and racism). Nations are there ans helping business organizations grow. But businesses are surely putting a pressure on nations to open up .. and Nations are surely putting pressure on religions to mellow down ..

So who will survive. Does any of these have a chance for long term or we are waiting for a new type of human organization to take shape .. something more stable ,, more efficient ..

Well ,, I am not much in history but how old is this concept of Nations ? .. may be 2000 years .. There were empires and dynasties .. and religion should be 500 years older than Nations .. before that there were races .. and when did the Family thing start ?

Looks like organizations .. as we see today is a pretty recent phenomenon .. May be we will see much larger and efficient organizations in future ..

But who will win the race . Man has surely won the race on all the fellow animals. Animals and insects are still there but ..they are just there .. Has Nation reached the same stage ? Is the Nation that org structure that is sheltering religions and races and families the way man is sheltering or shattering other animals ?

One property of an evolving and efficient organism that makes it so adaptable "Genetic evolution" is totally missing in Nations .. What I mean from Genetic Growth is that millions or billions of copies of the same structure are created and made to test each other .. and evolution happens thru better adaptation .. You have 150 odd nations .. This is not a number good enough to support evolution .. you need billions of them for" Genetic Evolution"

More next time

Cheers

Cheers

Living below the surface

It may sound weired but if you really think about it ..it makes hell of a sense ..

Fore the beginners here is the deal .. Start living half a mile below the surface of earth .. I am sure London Tube goes around that depth ..

Question is why ..

1. There is no risk of Earthquakes. Shaking of surface is largely a surface phenomenon. Its something like you cant feel the waves below waters ..ha ha ha .. disturbance just pass thru the structure without any harm ..

2. There is no risk of UV radiations ...

3. No Floods .of course you need to seal the gates ..

4. No threat of meteorites ..only few of them can go as deep

5. More space on the surface for animals and farming ..

Now you might say sounds good but why the hell we invest on this .. The answer is why are we spending billions of public money to find another planet while we can explore [sorry ..we have] a better and controlled living with in our own earth. Assuming the global warming ..the surface wont be livable anyways say with in 50 years .. we need plan the journey below the surface .. Subways are so successful ..why cant we have shopping malls at the same level as Piccadilly line .. and schools and hospitals and residential complexes ..


So the next question is who owns this layer .. How can i buy 3000 Sq ft just half a mile below the Taj Mahal ..

Think about it .. it may sound a "Shutri" ..but Patal Lok is coming on to us .We have all the technology .. all we need is to start digging ..

Cheers