Thought Garage

I read at Berkun Blog . Quite interesting to know how it started.. The history of innovation has many crazy tales - the patent office is involved in many. In 1836 the first U.S. patent office burned to the ground: despite all the great ideas in the building, they didn’t get around to fireproofing the building itself (An ivory tower lesson if ever there was one). Anyway, the fist 10,000 or so U.S. Patents were lost in the fire - about 2000 were recovered but the rest were lost. After the fire the Patent office began it’s numerical numbering system (giving up on the prior name and date system) - U.S. Patent #1 was granted to Senator John Ruggle of Maine. The invention? Comically enough, a reinvention of the wheel. Ruggle designed a new train wheel that yielded more traction and prevented sliding. The true first U.S. patent was for pot ash (no, not that kind) and granted in 1790. However patents in Europe date back hundreds of years earlier - but that’s another...

In MITWorld Videos " The Ceaseless Society: What Happens to Our Mind Body and Spirit When we Just Never Stop? ", speakers Jon Kabat-Zinn: Founding Director, Stress Reduction Clinic, University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Tenzin LS Priyadarshi: Buddhist Chaplain and Visiting Scholar, MIT discuss the effects of busy life patterns on human mind and body and how to cope with it. Also explains why it is so important to truly live in the present and 'mindful' living and effects of meditation. “we can get entrained into the rhythms of society as if we’re guinea pigs in an uncontrolled experiment run wild. No one’s minding the store.” The demands of daily life and an increasingly digital age leave us living for the future, and “if the present moment is only a clever way to get someplace else, then we’re never where we actually are.” So we’re perpetually dissatisfied .... When the brain gets going, it can be very creative, says Kabat-Zinn, and th...

India's premier IT services firm Infosys (INFY) is set to create another record in the history of Indian IT industry and in the history of NASDAQ. On Monday July 31st 2006, Infosys Technologies Executives will ring the first ever opening bell remotely from the Infosys Global Education Center in Mysore, India.  Media advisory released on 28th July 2006: For the first time ever, The NASDAQ Stock Market will open its market remotely from India. On Monday July 31st 2006, Infosys Technologies Executives will ring the opening bell remotely from the Infosys Global Education Center in Mysore, India, the company's largest education facility, to celebrate the company's 25-year business anniversary. The Opening Bell ceremony will be simultaneously displayed at the NASDAQ MarketSite from NASDAQ's premier broadcast studio in Times Square. The Opening Bell is a ceremonial event that represents The NASDAQ Stock Market's virtual market model. As a result, NASDAQ can be o...

Whatever the Corporate America mean 'Customer Service' in thier words, I often find it confusing and contrasting in thier deeds. Another manifestation of such Customer Service deed at Corporate America. This time it is at Kohls on Frankford Rd and Preston Road in Dallas TX. How is it a convenience to any customer? Tags: kohls , customer service , inspions , america , usa

Read an interesting discussion at Berkun Blog : There are two kinds of people: complexifiers and simplifers . There are two kinds of people: people that make things complex and people that simplify. Complexifiers are averse to reduction. Their instincts are to turn simple assignments into quagmires, and to reject simple ideas until they’re buried (or asphyxiated) in layers of abstraction. These are the people who write 25 page specifications when a picture will do and send long e-mails to the entire team when one phone call would suffice. When they see x=y, they want to play with it and show their talents, taking pleasure in creating the unneccesary (23x*z = 23y*z). They take pride in consuming more bandwith, time, and paitence than needed, and expect rewards for it. Simplifiers thrive on concision. They look for the 6x=6y in the world, and happily turn it into x=y. They never let their ego get in the way of the short path. When you give them seemingly complicated tasks...

I have started using Digg to report news stories on India at Digg. Here is the link to Digg . As always, I don't enjoy report or link stories because they are fancy or entertaining news. Only stories that inform about India towards its dream of becoming a super power and consolidate India's recent momentum in economic growth. . You can read real stories about Grass root innovations and the people that are making the real Indian innovation happen at Good News India . Here are the recent duggs China, India hold world ecological balance The choices China and India make in the next few years will lead the world either down a development path based on efficient technologies and better stewardship of resources or towards a future beset by growing ecological instability, said the US-based Worldwatch Institute in its State of the World 2006 report.  More… Hutch, Radio Mirchi, Nokia and HP launches Visual Radio ...

632 feet The Gateway Arch, St.Louis The Gateway Arch in shades More to come.. Tags: St.Louis , The Gateway Arch , inspions , coolpics , pictures