Thought Garage

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now." Source: TED | Talks | Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? (video)

I love mathematics. And I love magic too. What about combining both of them and present as the genius mathemagician, like Arthur Benjamin did in this presentation. It reminds me of India's own Sakuntala Devi, one of the best known wizards of Mathematics and lightning calculations. For those who know little or nothing about Sakuntala Devi, here is a brief introduction from wiki: Shakuntala Devi is a calculating prodigy who was born on November 4 , 1939 in Bangalore , India . Her father worked in a circus as a trapeze and tightrope performer, and later as a human cannonball . Her calculating gifts first demonstrated themselves while she was doing card tricks with her father when she was three. They report she "beat" them by memorization of cards rather than by sleight of hand. By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore . At the age of eight she had success at Annamalai University by doing the same. U...

“A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all” - Anonymous. Few notable thoughts that are worth sharing and spreading. How Web2.0 has almost killed the pageview? look at our pageviews number, but with a pinch of salt. Other indicators like unique visitors, time spent on site per visit, no of clicks per visit etc in my opinion are better metrics to drive your business goals. As this post indicates, the internet world as started taking note of this anomaly. This post on Gigaom theorizes that the pageview should be replaced by engagement oriented metrics; AC Nielson apparently has stopped using pageviews as a metric for video sites, preferring ‘time spent on site‘. On the Road to Highly Available EC2 Applications Today Amazon Web Services launched two new features in Amazon EC2 that are essential tools in building highly resilient applications: Elast...

I recently reviewed an insurance settlement of a claim my friend received. The claim says, Doctor billed the Insurance company for $4500. Insurance company adjustments/discounts were shown as $2400.  Finally insurance company paid the doctor $2100. I don't understand. I went back and reviewed all the claims I have. The original claim is always more than 200% of the amount that insurance company actually paid. Does all insurance companies get this hefty discount from the doctors? How does this claim work? Quite baffled at the numbers and the way finally everybody gets settled. I looked it up on Google and found a page on wiki that almost explained why that insurance company received such a benefit. The PPO. The idea of a preferred provider organization is that the providers will provide the insured members of the group a substantial discount below their regularly-charged rates. This will be mutually beneficial in theory, as the insurer will be billed at a reduced rate when...

Last year, Thought Garage topped Google Search for "H1B 2008". And this year, Thought Garage did it again. Thought Garage topped Google results for H1B 2009. When you search for H1B 2009 on Google, Thought Garage appears on the top with the post I have written on 24th January Thought Garage » H1B 2009 : Will ‘2007 H1B Rush’ repeat in 2008? In this post, I have analyzed whether the same rush continue in 2008 for H1B 2009 and many readers sent emails thanking for a great analysis without distorting or exaggerating the whole H1B story. As I mentioned last year, there is no reason for my blog to appear at the top of Google search results for information regarding H1B visas, without your turning to my blog to get the updates and sharing your experiences for the benefit of other guests. I understand for some of you, getting a H1B and working in US will be a turning point in your careers and I am quite thrilled that you considered Thought Garage as one of ...

USCIS announced yesterday, 19th March 2008 a few changes to the H1B 2009 selection process. 1.  No duplicate petitions for the same worker by the same firm To ensure a fair and orderly distribution of available H-1B visas, USCIS will deny or revoke multiple petitions filed by an employer for the same H-1B worker and will not refund the filing fees submitted with multiple or duplicative petitions. 2.  Applications will be accepted for 5 days, even if the cap is reached on day 1. April 1, 2008 is the first day petitions may be received for an October 1, 2008 start date.  When it is determined that the numerical limitations have been reached, USCIS employs a random selection process to choose among the petitions received on the “final receipt date.”  If the “final receipt date” falls within any one of the first five business days, the random selection will be run using all the cap-subject petitions received on those five days. ...

One of the Best Speeches I have ever heard. Read the transcript here.

Aha!! Via textually.org: Modern Products in Vintage Ads

Read this provoking thought at Seth's Blog: Why bother having a resume? I think if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all. .... If you don't have a resume, what do you have? How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects? Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch? Or a reputation that precedes you? Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up? Some say, "well, that's fine, but I don't have those." Yeah, that's my point. If you don't have those, why do you think you are  remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don't have those, you've been brainwashed into acting like you're sort of ordinary. Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for... those jobs don't get filled by people emailing ...

“A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all” - Anonymous. Few notable thoughts that are worth sharing and spreading. Is daylight-saving time costing us money? A year ago, we covered the newly extended daylight-saving time (DST), which, as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, was expected to generate energy savings nationwide. But a recent Wall Street Journal article reported that the extra month of daylight time might actually be costing us money, not saving it as planned. Thirsting for Energy in India’s Boomtowns and Beyond A beacon of India’s red-hot economy, the new suburb of Gurgaon on the edge of the capital, New Delhi, is also a symbol of India’s fast-growing hunger for energy. Startups do fail. What’s New? Birds fly. Fishes Swim. Deals Fall through and Startups Fail. This is the natural order of things. The on...

Finally Dallas gets little snow too. Not just enough to go out and play. But good enough to feel snowy ... after a long time.