Thought Garage

“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. Russian Outsourcing Branches Out There's plenty of conflict and chaos in the world, but the recent announcement by Russian IT outsourcing specialist Luxoft that it's expanding operations into Vietnam .. Free Market Data Portio Reseach have just published a free downloadable PDF, which contains tons of market data on the state of mobile. It’s a taster for the whole report that they want you to buy (fair enough), but there’s loads of facts to get your mind around in the free version. Christopher Alexander on the difference between a fifty-year-old carpenter and a novice We may understand it best by comparing the work of a fifty-year-old carpenter with the work of a novice. The experienced carpenter keeps going. He doesn’t have to keep stopping, because every action he p...

Huge achievement for the Telecom markets. The impact of having a mobile phone is quite far reaching than just enabling communications.  Cellular Phone became a life style for many, a life saver for some and integral part of their livelihood for a whole lot of others. As per the statistics, at the end of 2007, as per ITU report, one in two in the world now have a cellular phone. Wow! Source: 49% of humans have mobile phones: ITU THE number of mobile phone users world soared to over 3.3 billion by the end of 2007, equivalent to a penetration rate of 49 percent, the International Telecommunications Union has said in a report. Africa showed the strongest gains over the past two years and more than two thirds of all mobile subscribers were from developing countries by the end of 2007, the ITU said. This is 'a positive trend that suggests that developing countries are catching up," the report said. Mobile subscription growth stood at 39 percent annually in Africa between 2005-20...

Huge achievement for the Telecom markets. The impact of having a mobile phone is quite far reaching than just enabling communications.  Cellular Phone became a life style for many, a life saver for some and integral part of their livelihood for a whole lot of others. As per the statistics, at the end of 2007, as per ITU report, one in two in the world now have a cellular phone. Wow! Source: 49% of humans have mobile phones: ITU THE number of mobile phone users world soared to over 3.3 billion by the end of 2007, equivalent to a penetration rate of 49 percent, the International Telecommunications Union has said in a report. Africa showed the strongest gains over the past two years and more than two thirds of all mobile subscribers were from developing countries by the end of 2007, the ITU said. This is 'a positive trend that suggests that developing countries are catching up," the report said. Mobile subscription growth stood at 39 percent annually in Africa between 2005...

Carnegie Mellon was the final stop on Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates' recent tour of several nationally recognized universities. As founder, chairman and former CEO of Microsoft, Gates revolutionized personal computing in the digital information age. His talk at Carnegie Mellon concluded his farewell lecture tour as he transitions from Microsoft into his new role in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission it is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.

There was a significant hike in the prices of rice in US. Some varieties of rice is just not available any more in most Asian grocery stores. I heard that American top leaders including George Bush blaming India and China for the shortage saying that people from those countries are eating more as the middle class is becoming wealthy. As stupid as it looks, even if that is true it only expose the real issue behind US's own terribly huge consumption. [ Image Credits: Photo by Genemoo @ Flickr] Read the other post where I learnt that the problem with what and how America eats is a lot bigger and worse than it appears What is wrong with what Americans eat . I am trying to decipher the hidden meaning of these Market signals, and I found some surprising and totally shocking information on who consumes the most grains in the world. If I just say it, you probably won't believe it. So , I found this article that substantiate in real numbers. I put the information represented in th...

Seems like great happy hours to learn every 2nd Friday, if you are out of Delhi. Otherwise, you may still catch some action on the video. If you are a technology entrepreneur and based out of Delhi, you should book your date with NASSCOM’s Friday 2.0 sessions . These experience sharing talks are organised on the 2nd Friday of every month at the NASSCOM office in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. These talks are not new- in fact, they have been organised for a couple of years now, but given that 2.0 is the ruling flavor these days and symbolises maturation, growth, repositioning, re-orientation etc., they decided to christen the sessions NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0. Check out this page for details about previous sessions. Source: Entrepreneurship storytelling with Nasscom’s Friday 2.0 sessions

Recently there has been some discussion about USCIS issuing multi-year EADs to applicants that are waiting on Adjustment of Status. Particularly keeping in view a huge number of applicants that filed last summer. You can read more regarding this question asked by attorneys in this document released by USCIS. USCIS hasn't committed any dates in the answer but said will look into this matter. I was searching for something and found this document by USCIS that is meant for asylees and USCIS indicated that it will issue multi-year EADs up to 5 years. So, multi-year EAD concept is not new to USCIS, its just that it is not applied to regular applicants that are waiting on AOS(I-485). Another point to note is that multi-year EAD isn't any cheaper as most of us might be looking. Its almost yearly EAD fees * Number of years ( little less may be). May be you can save your attorney filing fees and filing expenses if you can apply for a multi-year EAD. Hope USCIS looks into the matter at...

Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk. Not a coincidence, obesity is quite prevalent in affluent countries like US and it seems even this way what Americans eat seems to be causing problems to the rest of the world. Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices Two scientists write that obese people are disproportionately responsible for high food prices and greenhouse gas emissions because they consume 18% more food energy due to their greater body mass -- and require increased quantities of fuel to transport themselves and the food they eat. 'Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food,' write the authors, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the...

Does this mean Job market is improving? Could this be an indicator of any stability or I would say resistance to recession by the market? I hope so. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week for the second time in three weeks, suggesting some stability in labor markets this month after four-straight declines in monthly nonfarm employment. Jobless Claims Drop in Latest Week - WSJ.com

AT&T says it will provide 3G network in 275 markets by 30th of June this year. Couple this new item with what will happen in the first of week June, the well rumored 3G iPhone release, AT&T is looking to dominate the 3G market. In a press release that carefully avoids any mention of the iPhone, Apple’s U.S. mobile carrier announced Wednesday that roughly two-third of its nationwide cell phone network be 3G ready within the next month. By the end of June, according to AT&T, 275 U.S. markets will offer download speeds of 1.4 Mbps and upload speeds of 500 to 800 kbps (using HSDPA for downlink and HSUPA for up). FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 AT&T: 3G network will be ready in 275 markets by June 30 «

Are you a virgin Mobile customer? Have you heard about face book? You might be able to earn free airtime minutes, if you happen have a good network of friends on face book. Read on. Facebook has a brand new Sugar Mama, thanks to a unique new application that lets friends earn wireless airtime for other friends who are Virgin Mobile USA customers. The national provider of wireless communications services and plans without annual contracts has designed the "Fund My Phone" application, allowing Virgin Mobile USA's more than 5 million customers to get their Facebook friends to help pay for their wireless minutes. "Fund My Phone" is an extension of the popular Sugar Mama mobile marketing program first launched by Virgin Mobile USA in 2006. Customers who opt in to Sugar Mama are invited to earn up to 75 minutes per month by viewing a variety of ad spots and other creative materials and answer a few questions. Customers also earn airtime by completing surveys online...

I have never seen any one that could derive some sense out of numbers, that are otherwise overwhelmingly complex. But Hans is a genius that could so clearly explain how a country's economic development contributes to health and how different parts of the world are growing. Amazing and eye opening presentation.   You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world." TED | Talks | Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen (video)

A demo of Photosynth, dazzling tech that may transform the way we look at digital images. Using photos scraped from the Web, Photosynth builds breathtaking dreamscapes with navigation.   Photosynth Technology Preview

I have been receiving lots of emails (92 emails yesterday alone) asking why they haven't received any notification from USCIS and how long they need to wait to get any confirmation. Some even getting suspicious about their employers that they are not telling them any truth about the whole processing. This prompted me to write this post. Hopefully everyone that is visiting this blog and asking questions in the blog posts will read this post, as it would be practically impossible to send response to each and everyone. Why I haven't received any notification? Employers are constantly receiving notifications every day, however there is no data on how many applications have been notified already. So everyone must wait until USCIS notifies that it had sent the final notification. How long will it take? You must wait at least until  the first week of June or until USCIS issues an notification that it had sent the last notification. Be patient and there is no point getting suspicio...

At my Toastmasters' club and every other social gathering, I always mention (sometimes, I almost preach or fight) in one way or the other, why we need to pick and choose our own news, news that makes real difference to our career or personal life or something we are so passionate about.  And why we must exclude or reject completely the news that could be sensational or publicized by media companies, but never make any sense to you or your life. In other words, you decide what news is really news for you and what news is sensational for you and what news you really can't miss out. Watch this TED video, the statistics will tell you the real story behind the scenes and how elegantly speaker summarizes in one simple line, why Media houses make Britney on the street, the news that could never miss.   TED | Talks | Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world (video) Best way to take control of your life, stop watching TV and stop listening to Radio where broadc...

This is the first time ever attempted to take Olympic torch to the top of the world. Its an amazing feat to carry the torch to the top of Mount Everest. The world's finest games at the top of the world. Kudos to Beijing for the plan. Hope, people will put their political views aside and enjoy these wonderful moments of the Games.

T-Mobile surpassed 30M mark in total subscribers by adding almost 1 million subscribers in the last quarter itself. T-Mobile USA amassed 981,000 net additions in the first three months, three quarters of which were post-pay customers. Another 1.1 million subscribers were added when its purchase of SunCom was consolidated on February 22. T-Mobile USA currently has a total of 30.8 million subscribers. The calling plan MyFaves was doing especially well in the US, with 5.5 million customers at the end of the quarter. SMS and MMS usage was also up from the same quarter last year, with 33 billion messages sent in Q1 2008 Earnings: Deutsche Telekom First Quarter Stable; T-Mobile Hit By Currency Declines - washingtonpost.com

1. Senior Level Java/J2EE and .NET Developers 2. Application Development Managers 3. Security Professionals 4. Architects of All Stripes 5. Talented IT Managers 6. Business Technology Professionals 7. Database Administrators and Managers 8. Infrastructure Pros with Strong Backgrounds in Virtualization 9. Web 2.0 Developers 10. Wireless Networking Experts   Source: The 10 Hottest IT Jobs in Demand