Thought Garage

Here is a PDF copy of the Lokpal Bill submitted in Loksabha. via PRS

Nice packaging of Coke, appears to support saving the home of polar bears (the arctic).

New trend or just a coincidence, stumbled upon these two Training style Presentations that got an upgrade of their own, in the format of a TV reality show. 1. The Art of Speaking with Scott Hanselman "In this special production we put notable speaker, Scott Hanselman, to the test: learn CoffeeScript in 90 minutes, then present a 15 minute talk. We sit live with Scott as he probes the CoffeeScript documentation and designs his talk, walking us through his slide design process and code demos. Along the way we do what we do: to throw curveballs and see how he handles the pressure." The Art of Speaking with Scott Hanselman 60 minutes Video, $18 2. Ryan Singer UX Sketching "Ryan Singer designs user interfaces at 37signals. We flew to Chicago to learn how he works…first hand. We gave him a small task and watched him design a user interface out loud and on paper. The result is possibly the most insightful, educational, and thought provoking video we’ve produc

Amazing 3D Art illusions here .

A hexapod robot that can transform into a sphere shape and back. Still under construction... Featuring 25 servos. 12x 5990, 13x 5645 Hitec servos, Basicmicro ARC-32 board, XBee, 2S 5000mAh LiPo, Turnigy 8amp regulator.

It is indeed the single best thing. And presentation definitely captures the interest and hopefully motivate enough of us. A Doctor-Professor answers the old question "What is the single best thing we can do for our health" in a completely new way.

Cambridge Digital Library released Sir Isaac Newton's papers and notebooks to public.  If you are curious, head over to the library . Cambridge University Library is pleased to present the first items in its Foundations of Science collection: a selection from the Papers of Sir Isaac Newton. The Library holds the most important and substantial collection of Newton's scientific and mathematical manuscripts and over the next few months we intend to make most of our Newton papers available on this site. Newton Papers : Cambridge Digital Library

Well known atheist Christopher Hitchens died on thursday. For once, you cannot just say RIP (rest in peace), as that would be disrespecting him. Once you are dead, you are dead. There is nothing afterwards. We all have best of our lives, when we make best of our lives. via 43405126@N02@Flickr

Internet did erase so many boundaries that otherwise restrict collaboration. And there are other things that we may have never imagined are now possible with the scale only internet can offer. After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. At TEDxCMU, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the Web quickly and accurately -- all for free. http://www.ted.com

"Europe has been the largest solar energy market for years, but it has ceded some of the spotlight this year to India as India becomes a new frontier for American manufacturers." -  India: The Next Solar Frontier - Forbes

Here to the crazy ones narrated by Steve Jobs himself.

I am little surprised that 37signals buys online ads. Here is what I found on New York Times. And another surprise is that the Ad don’t even mention 37signals at all. Hmm?

A special event ‘ Celebrating Steve ’ @ Apple campus on 19th of October, 2011. Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Apple Inc. Watch the ‘ Celebrate Steve ’ event here.

I haven’t watched any similar interview with the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and I just loved it. Not really for the stereo type questions that were asked, but the way he talked about things in and around Facebook. Watch live video from Startup School on Justin.tv Nice watch.

A choice between money now and money later.

Steve Blank's presentation on "Why Accountants Don't Run Businesses" discusses about how the eco-system of Entrepreneurship and startups is fast changing around the world: costs, venture capital, incubators and others. And more importantly what is different now and what matters the most for today's startups and entrepreneurs. Watch live video from Startup Lessons Learned on Justin.tv

Just came to know that Dennis Ritchie, known to the world as the creator of C Programming Language has passed away recently. May he rest in peace. C has been at the foundation of almost all software systems and the world of software owes a great deal to this genius. For me personally, if I hadn’t been introduced to C on that wonderful day by my friend Naga Sreenu, I wouldn’t be where I am, most importantly I wouldn’t be what I am today.  The initial infatuation and then love of C language, on Unix and that initial romance and excitement of solving C programming samples has turned my career forever.  And it changed the way I approach any problem since then. Thank you so much and may he rest in peace.

If you haven't watched this video earlier, most probably you wouldn't know how Silicon Valley got started in the first place. Or its just me. [Recorded: November 20, 2008] Today, Silicon Valley is known around the world as a fount of technology innovation and development fueled by private venture capital and peopled by fabled entrepreneurs. But it wasn't always so. Unbeknownst to even seasoned inhabitants, today's Silicon Valley had its start in government secrecy and wartime urgency. In this lecture, renowned serial entrepreneur Steve Blank presents how the roots of Silicon Valley sprang not from the later development of the silicon semiconductor but instead from the earlier technology duel over the skies of Germany and secret efforts around (and over) the Soviet Union. World War II, the Cold War and one Stanford professor set the stage for the creation and explosive growth of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. The world was forever changed when the Def

Steve Blank - Founder Pioneer of Customer Development "Founders are artists in the true sense of the word." Steve is inspiring founders and challenging the establishment on how to approach launching startups. website: www.steveblank.com twitter: @sgblank

Steve Jobs, back in the day, telling us how simple brands really need to be.

Vinod Khosla, Founding Partner, Khosla Ventures was a Keynote Speaker at TiEcon 2011.

Richard Branson speaking with Seth Godin about learning from failure. http://innerpreneuring.com/report/2009/July/27/204/

You need a lot of passion for what you're doing because its so hard. Without passion, any rational person would give up. So if youre not having fun doing it, if you dont absolutely love it, youre going to give up. And thats what happens to most people, actually. If you look at the ones that ended up being successful in the eyes of society, often times its the ones who love what they do, so they could persevere when it got really tough. And the ones that didnt love it, quit. Because theyre sane, right? Who would put up with this stuff if you dont love it? So its a lot of hard work and its a lot of worrying constantly. If you dont love it, youre going to fail.

In today's Apple Special event , the CEO showed a nice graph of iPod cumulative sales and mentioned that Apple sold more than 300 Million units. It is an amazing number in itself. But what caught my eye is the graph showing the cumulative growth itself. Wondering why it took so long, until 2005 to gain momentum. And what was that pivotal moment in 2005 that changed the whole scene for iPods. Cumulative iPod Sales If you remember, the iPod was introduced in 2001 and iTunes was introduced in 2003. But if you look at the graph, it took off around 2005, almost 4 years later after it was first introduced. What happened? What was that some thing amazing happened around 2005 that turned the tide in favor of iPods ?  And here is another important question, why 'cumulative' graph was included in the presentation instead of year on year growth?  It's much easier to guess that, I think. If not so obvious, check the following more detailed graph from Wikipedia . 

I have been telling all this year that we couldn't find good .NET Developers. It appears, its an industry wide trend across the US. According to technology job board   Dice’s   October report, there’s one particular tech talent now in short supply across the U.S.: Microsoft’s .NET. Job postings requiring .NET are up more than 25% year-over-year, the company says – faster growth than the total job postings on all of Dice.com. -- Techcrunch   Looking for a job, make your search faster here .

Looked so simple on the outset and thought it is totally theoretical when I first heard about this. But once I start using these concepts I realized how totally mind blowing these concepts are. Now so many things appear to make sense. Amazing. Glad I stumbled upon it. A 2 minute overview of the Business Model Canvas, a tool for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. This method from the bestselling management book Business Model Generation is applied in leading organizations and start-ups worldwide. Find out more at http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com

For most of the day during and after today's iPhone event at Apple, we could barely access their web site consistently. Glad its back now. Not only full web site is accessible, but also the streaming video of today's event is now available for us to watch. Watch Apple's 4th October "Let's Talk iPhone" event here .

Here is a nice info graphic on the history of iPhone. What you know is already history and I believe the best of iPhone is yet to come. via Mashable .

Part of 2010 Conference on Entrepreneurship. Description: A group of entrepreneurs talk about what they learned in the trenches that they never could have learned in a classroom. The panelists will also share the courses that were most helpful to them in their entrepreneurial ventures, the courses that they wished they had taken, and the topics that business schools should be teaching to aspiring entrepreneurs.

The Lean Startup movement is taking hold in companies both new and established to help entrepreneurs and managers do one important thing: make better, faster business decisions. Vastly better, faster business decisions. Bringing principles from lean manufacturing and agile development to the process of innovation, the Lean Startup helps companies succeed in a business landscape riddled with risk. This book shows you how. Google hosts Eric Ries author of, "The Lean Startup" Eric is the author of the popular blog Startup Lessons Learned and the creator of the Lean Startup methodology. He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup, which has today has over 40 million users and 2009 revenue over $22 million. An entrepreneur in residence at Harvard Business School and a frequent speaker at business events, he advises startups on business and product strategy using the Lean Startup approach. http://theleanstartup.com/

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One of the best Talks I have ever listened to on Entrepreneurship, may consider this as the Entrepreneurship 101, not for how to become an Entrepreneur but to understand what is Entrepreneurship is all about. Of course, the definition may be biased and based on what valley firms are doing, but a much better definition overall. Part of the annual GSB Entrepreneurship Conference. As traditional barriers to scale erode, product life cycles compress, and the costs of starting a business fall, the opportunities for entrepreneurship have expanded. Steve Blank , the author of "Four Steps to the Ephiphany" and leading advocate for the "Customer Development" model of entrepreneurship, focuses on the new opportunities and challenges in a world in which entrepreneurship has become democratized.

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Love this quote. "I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not" - Kurt Cobain via 28896959@N05@Flickr

Schools used to be all about learning by doing until Industrial age shook them off. Well, we must go back to the roots of true meaning of education by trying exactly the same again. And enough evidence and efforts to prove why we must. http://www.ted.com Some kids learn by listening; others learn by doing. Geoff Mulgan gives a short introduction to the Studio School, a new kind of school in the UK where small teams of kids learn by working on projects that are, as Mulgan puts it, "for real."

It is most probably surprise you to know that for a full decade, Gandhi and Nehru got almost equal attention from the world of books. Between 1960 and 1970, based on number of times their names were mentioned, they both score about the same for about a decade. While Nehru went down-under, Gandhi remains at those levels even now. Gandhi & Nehru in the world of Books Can't believe, try yourself here . Tongue in cheek ? I guess so.

In many ways, India can only catch up with China in economic growth if China slows down. There may be other areas, where China is catching up with India precisely for that reason. One of those yardsticks is how many times it is mentioned in various books. Thanks to Google Books NGram Viewer, we can compare China and India based on how many they are mentioned in various books. View at Google's Ngram Viewer   Most probably this is not an intended use of the Ngram viewer or may not be accurate, but aligns with my earlier thoughts on how India can catchup with China in economy, so can't be an outlier :-)).

Has anybody tried Flight Search on Google ? Its pretty cool. Flight search is a feature that helps you explore air travel options for a number of cities, and plan your trip with just a few clicks of the mouse.

I started blogging back in 2004 on Blogger, went out to Wordpress.com and then moved to Wordpress hosted on my a host and finally came back home to Blogger at the beginning of the year. The convenience, unlimited flexibility and absolutely zero maintenance, I fell in love again. Did I mention, all this awesomeness is also totally FREE? Yes it is. Few weeks back, I switched to the coffee time theme as I simply loved the theme and customized with none other than Google's web fonts that add style to the blog even within the browser. IF you don't like the theme of my blog, for any reason, try http://thoughtgarage.muralim.com/view to see 7 other different crazy stunning formats that you can read this blog. Watch the following video or try it right away . An overview of the seven new dynamic views in Blogger that use to customize your blog. Built with the latest in web technology (AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3), Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that will inspire yo

Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself -- at the university's 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005. Transcript of Steve Jobs' address: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html Stanford University channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more on Randy, visit: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture Learn how to support the Randy Pausch Memorial Bridge, visit: http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/images/extras/emails/pausch/pausch_bridge.html

Part 2 of the March 20, 2007 meeting featuring Mike Cohn, Agile Estimation

The March 20, 2007 Meeting. Featuring Mike Cohn, Agile Estimation

Aptech promises Job ready in 75 days { java or .NET } ?? Really? via 89861183@N00@Flickr

Many people say we can not change the world until we change the people. But you can see, how a change in the environment around changes the people around. Talk about raising expectations of good behavior by setting up the environment that encourages it. Want to do a SpotFix? Watch these first-timers! Team Asha is a random group of people who asked The Ugly Indian to arrange a SpotFix. Many other such random groups have come forward. For more details, visit www.theuglyindian.com or go the The Ugly Indian on FaceBook. If you want to do a Spotfix in Bangalore, write to theuglyindian@gmail.com

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Quote: "The only time Apple ever lost the plot was when it put the M.B.A.s in charge." via Driven off the Road by M.B.A.s

It's always so inspiring to watch a sunrise. These days it is lot easier to catch it early and enjoy it longer too. Beautiful sunrise up.

Entrepreneurship is an emotional and economic roller coaster, says venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Mark Suster. In this candid and informative lecture, Suster defies some of Silicon Valley's conventional wisdom. Based on his extensive experience with multiple companies, Suster shares his thoughts on the real day-to-day life of startups, smart ways to raise the right kind of funds, and offers honest advice in making your way as an entrepreneur. – Stanford’s e-corner Source : Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner

Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away - From the movie, Hitch Here is an amazing and breath taking art form and fitting concept. I just can't believe it. A new sand art from Ilana Yahav for 2010 - "Our Man is sitting in his office, worn down by the weight of life in this hustling, bustling city... He dreams of the simple life and nature, peace and tranquility. One man's short dream and then . . . back to reality." www.sandfantasy.com , Music by - Georges Chatelain

http://www.ted.com Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both intentional and unexpected. Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences.

One of the best info graphics that I have ever seen, and the only one on Org Charts.  Quite vividly illustrates the informal organization structure of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Oracle. Just awesome.  via  Getting serious about your org chart

This video takes a look Y Combinator's successful efforts in transforming startup companies into multi-million dollar businesses. By taking a close look at the past 6 years of Y Combinator data, it highlights the numbers that show how successful they have been so far and ends with the outlook for potential continuing success.

How Netflix uses WebKit and HTML5 for connected devices (via GigaOm ) Netflix Webkit-Based UI for TV Devices View more presentations from mattmccarthy_nflx In a post on the Netflix Tech Blog , device UI engineers Matt McCarthy and Kim Trott shared a presentation that gives a peek behind the curtain in how it’s able to do so. The key is standards-based development using WebKit, JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.

Finally here is a Blogger application on iOS devices. Primarily its an iPhone (iPod) application but can be run on iPad as well. Google announced the app on the blog and you can download the app from the App Store .  Read more about the announcement and features here :  Blogger Buzz: Announcing the Blogger app for iOS .  Here are a couple of quick screenshots from iPhone using the Blogger app. List of Posts Composer Screen Glad, they made it compatible with all iOS devices by making it compatible on iOS 3.2+. The work flow is smooth and intuitive to work with. However, the composer doesn't support rich text, so you will see all HTML markup when you are trying to update an existing post. But big deal for me is it makes life lot easier now to post pictures directly to Blogger blog. Emailing a picture wasn't working as Blogger has difficulty in parsing images embedded in emails.

It was an amazing presentation by Garrett Dimon at RefreshDallas last night, took us through the memory lane of bootstrapping SifterApp , filled with full of choices they made (both right and wrong) and occasional anecdotes. I made it little late but I am glad I went in.   If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.- Isaac Newton I have just kicked of building my software product a couple of days ago and the timing of this presentation couldn’t be any better. It cleared so many clouds and answered quite a few questions. I was too tempted to include ‘custom statuses’ and now its totally off the list.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is among the greatest innovators of our time. And yet his genius for understanding business is rarely explained in any public way. Rarer still is to hear the advice he would give to the CEO of another hugely successful company: Nike. But that's exactly what you'll learn from this video, in which Nike president and CEO Mark Parker tells about the advice that Jobs gave him shortly after the release of the Nike+ product line. It's a simple bit of wisdom that any entrepreneur can relate to: "Get rid of the crappy stuff." Easy to say, hard to do."I expected a little laugh," Parker says of the exchange. "But there was a pause and no laugh at the end." The setting here is Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored conference on April 21, 2010, in New York City.

With Rick Perry promoting Texas as the model state to create jobs, the political backlash begins with numbers showing Texas in limelight, not in any way that favors the Perry team. via 32052247@N00@Flickr

Little surprised, that Ron Paul bagged 50% support. Read more here on  MSNBC . via 95652583@N00@Flickr

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This year almost all Ganesh Idols hide one otherwise quite visible features of Lord Ganapati (or Ganesh with love), the big tummy. Seems he went on seriously strict diet since last year . And even the pose is quite different, more of a relaxing on a lounge style.

The Talk: "The hallmark of any great brand is authenticity -- just ask Harley-Davidson, Coke or Apple, especially when all of these brands lost their way and learned from it. Same thing applies to Brand You. In every tweak of a template, upload and keystroke, you have an opportunity to be authentic or disingenuous. Know what makes you special and unique, and tap into those qualities as you build your personal brand online. Most people can spot a fake when they see one, so remember that being genuine is more important that presenting yourself in an artificially glossy manner. It used to be important for bloggers to "find their voice" -- now it's relevant to all of us." Bio: David Armano is both an active practitioner and thought leader in the worlds of experience design and digital marketing. Author of the popular Logic + Emotion blog, he has been invited to speak at events hosted by organizations such as Google, Microsoft, OReilly and Ad Age. David curren

The Talk: Marketing by Sharing Jason Fried is the co-founder and President of 37signals, a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. 37signals' products include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework. 37signals' products do less than the competition - intentionally. Jason believes there's real value and beauty in the basics. Elegance, respect for people's desire to simply get stuff done, and honest ease of use are the hallmarks of 37signals products.

By any and every measure, the whole Jan Lokpal and/or Anna Hazare movement against corruption has been phenomenal. Tremendous response and discussions all over. Do not know what triggered so many people to come out and support in their own ways. I am not sure even today, everybody really understand the whole issue and what this bill is practically capable of. Some don't know what it is all about. Some understood a little. A whole majority of people are yet to read the bill.   via  78638509@N00@Flickr However, the movement as it is, some thing of huge importance, we need to think about. The bill may take a while to come into existence and actively enforced. But if we can leverage the rage and support of general public, we may be able to do something immediate and that make a difference in common man's life. May be, we can encourage more participation in other civic issues, enlist greater participation in politics in general. May be we can start focus groups to researc

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David Allen speaks on GTD and the two keys to sustaining a healthy life and work style.

David Allen, author of "Getting Things Done, " one of the best-selling productivity books of all times joins Robert Scoble to talk about the future of work and how to make the most of productivity while minimizing stress. Allen also talks about his upcoming GTD Summit.

The Epic that redefined the Indian TV is now available on Youtube. Watch all episodes or pick your favorite one at the Youtube Mahabharat show page.   B.R Chopra's Mahabharat is a show that has left an indelible impression in the hearts and minds of viewers worldwide with its timeless values and teachings. This classic tale of the victory of good over evil is available exclusively on the Internet at Rajshri.com.Written by Brahmrishi Ved Vyasa, the ancient philosopher thinker who was known to be the fountain of all human knowledge, it has been translated into many languages and even presented in ballet form in far off western and oriental countries. But the MAHABHARAT is not an abstruse philosophical or religious tract. It encompasses all shades of human nature from the utterly base to the completely divine; its high point is Lord Sri Krishna's message to humanity, the Song Celestial the divine BHAGVAT GITA, acknowledged to be the quintessence of all knowledge embodied

Its totally breathtaking documentary. No matter, how many times I watch it, I fall in love each time as if I watched it for the first time. Internationally renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand makes his feature directorial debut with this environmentally conscious documentary produced by Luc Besson, and narrated by Glenn Close. Shot in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, Home presents the many wonders of planet Earth from an entirely aerial perspective. As such, we are afforded the unique opportunity to witness our changing environment from an entirely new vantage point. In our 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has hopelessly upset Mother Nature's delicate balance. Some experts claim that we have less than ten years to change our patterns of consumption and reverse the trend before the damage is irreversible. Produced to inspire action and encourage thoughtful debate, Home poses the prospect that unless we act quickly, we risk losing the only home we may eve

http://www.ted.com MIT researcher Skylar Tibbits works on self-assembly -- the idea that instead of building something (a chair, a skyscraper), we can create materials that build themselves, much the way a strand of DNA zips itself together. It's a big concept at early stages; Tibbits shows us three in-the-lab projects that hint at what a self-assembling future might look like.

More on the series A financing. Going back for another round with a series B financing.

Series A funding from a seed venture capitalist.

Raising money from an angel investor. Pre-money and post-money valuation.

If you like genuine spicy hot Andhra style Mutton (Goat) curry, you will love the Mutton curry at Jaiho restaurant. Its pretty unrealistic to see all those 4 keywords, genuine, spicy, hot and andhra in the same line in any other Indian restuarant in the DFW metroplex.   Its hardly less than a month since it opened doors to public, but it already successfully enticed me 4 times. And not surprisingly I am yet to taste most other dishes that are on the buffet table. Every time I went, the Mutton curry spoils my resolve to try different items and see how overall the food tastes.  If you like spicy and hot andhra curries, precisely, mutton curry, give it a try. Its on NE corner of Coit & George Bush turnpike in Plano  (Used to be Asian Grill in the same buliding). 208 Coit Rd, Suite # 700 and 500, Plano TX 75075 If you do not eat spicy food or have been in the US long enough, get ready to wake up your taste buds to sizzling sensation and make sure you go '

“ T here are about 6.7 Billion people in this world that we know of.  Whether you believe in ‘Creation’ or ‘Evolution’, this human race started with a tiny number. It is quite amazing to see how fast it multiplies. What is more amazing is that every single individual in that 6 billion crowd is born ‘unique’.  Quite literally, you are born to be  one in a billion , whether you believe it or not. “ This was the Introduction to my latest and last speech in Toast Masters club, ‘One in a Billion’ as part of International Speech contest.  As much as I believe that each one of us can be that 'one in a billion' personality, I admit the reality as I perceive it and some times feel alone in that belief . A famous quote says 'You are what you think'. It is also true that ' you are what you think people think about you '. If you think people think you are smart, then you act smart and become smart. If you think people think you are dumb, you will become dum

In 2003, the Palestinian village of Budrus mounted a 10-month-long nonviolent protest to stop a barrier being built across their olive groves. Did you hear about it? Didn't think so. Brazilian filmmaker Julia Bacha asks why we only pay attention to violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict -- and not to the nonviolent leaders who may one day bring peace. Check out this amazing TED Talk: Julia Bacha: Pay attention to nonviolence http://www.ted.com/talks/julia_bacha.html

Its funny. We watch this and see how foolish it would be to be part of the crowd that believes in. And yet, the religion, the biggest trick of all, lives on world wide. So rational and reasonable for a moment and yet so gullible for a life time.

It's really funny and made me lol. Tried accessing  http://joydefinesthefuture.com/ on my iPad. " This is an experiment that demonstrates the latest emerging web technologies. As a consequence, it will only work in the latest and most powerful browsers, such as  Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta ." lol.

Below is an excerpt of some thoughts shared on a different discussion on the fight against corruption and argument that Anna's bill doesn't change a thing because most people are corrupt and we need a social transformation rather. The argument further goes to say that Anna should instead focus on educating people to elect honest representatives to solve the issue at its root.  I do not say we shouldn't try to fix the root cause, but we should be practical and consider the approach based on where we are now. Corruption in India is like a cancer evolved over generations. It would be a better and quite practical solution to do a surgery and use chemicals and medicine (even though they all have quite serious side effects). Fixing the root cause really mean reversing the evolution (social and systematic) and kind of irreversible (or impractical). We can start over after the surgery, for sure, and take steps for a grass roots approach. But grass roots approach alone is li

Ryan Singer from 37signals talks about "UI Fundamentals for Programmers". UI Fundamentals for Programmers: Ryan Singer at WindyCityRails 2009 from Ryan Singer on Vimeo .

Wonderful hands-on video to learn Git basics. Tom Preston-Werner - Mastering Git Basics from Erlang Solutions on Vimeo .

For the first time, David Blaine shares his story about breaking the world record for holding his breath at TEDMED. Simply amazing!

Can you start a business if you are on H1B ? And Can that business sponsor your H1B and hire you as an employee ? Yes and Yes.  Under the previous interpretations of CIS rules, a highly skilled worker who is legally in the United States on an H-1B visa could start a company but could not work for it. CIS updated the H1-B guidelines to “clarify” that business owners on H1-B visas could work for their own companies, provided that they work full time for the company and are treated like an employee. For example, the company could have a board that is able to hire, fire, pay, supervise or otherwise control the worker like they would any other staff member. Source : On Immigration, a step in the right direction, Vivek Wadhwa Its really wonderful news and clarification to both questions. Even though many people knew that they could start a business while on H1B, its always a rather gray area with too many interpretations.

Nice info graphic illustrating various non-tuition costs of Education. I never thought students will spend so much on alcohol, coffee and entertainment ($2600, $1800 and $4000 respectively, about $700 a  month).  The Non-Tuition Costs of Education ( Source : http://www.coursehero.com/ ) Compare it to expenses of students coming from abroad, as I heard,  through friends that did Masters in the US, that they could survive at $350 to $600 on average per month (total expenses for month, excluding tuition). 

Its rather intriguing but totally reasonable critique of the euphoria of Jan Lokpal bill. Glad not all people are simply carried away with emotions. He did not answer the question on the big ticket corruption as much convincingly as he did for the retail aspects, probably his work involved more of the later than the former. And strikingly, the JanLokpal addresses the big ticket corruption to a large extent. By no means, I am against the Jan Lokpal bill, but I don't believe in those wild fantasies that it can somehow magically eradicate corruption. An independent body with powers is the need of the hour, but setting up a whole new body without checks and balances is set for disaster. Why not make some of our existing bodies that are setup to fight against corruption independent. After all, even the Lokpal is supposed to execute the law through these bodies.  But none of those above objections call for dissing the whole movement. Its rather a great start to go

Arvind Kejriwal @ IIT Chennai explaining the Jan Lokpal Bill, background, history of the movement and clarifying so many frivolous objections raised by the Government. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Must read for everybody. Entrepreneurs, investors and some of you may start with a pinch of salt but to most people that are aware of how most of these hyped VC darlings and highly ‘valued’ companies work, should be just a reminder of the hard reality and what to focus on. There was a lot of discussion on ‘Custom’ metrics that Groupon came up with to show to the world that it is actually doing great and making profits. But it turned out, they are all ‘gimmicks’ to hide costs and show profitable when it is actually loosing money. " Alright, you caught us. We're actually not making any money. In fact, we are really losing a lot of money ." This is the essence of Groupon's declaration last week that it will remove the controversial accounting metric called Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income (ACSOI) from its financial statements. ACSOI essentially measures Groupon's profits before subtracting its subscriber-acquisition costs and stock option-based compe

Wonderful info-graphic on the economy of patent law suits from http://www.focus.com/images/view/30296/ :

While searching for something on Github, I stumbled upon a pretty comprehensive  HTML5 Boiler Plate for Google AppEngine Projects . Looks great to use as the default Google App Engine project template. App Engine Boilerplate is a versatile yet minimalistic setup for new App Engine projects. html5-boilerplate 2.0  (including it's automated build toolchain for minification and concatenation of js+css) Beautiful OpenID login with  openid-selector Memcaching setup for requests and responses Flexible user-preferences model (with Gravatar link) Templates and template addons Tools such as  is_testenv()  and  slugify(url) app.yaml  configuration for admin areas, static files Released under the  BSD license The source is available on  Github . Will be using it in an App Engine project that will be kicked off towards the middle of the week and will share more about it. 

It’s a great news in many aspects, that Google is buying Motorola, the pioneer of Mobile handsets for $12.5 Billion dollars. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies. The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business. -- Google Press Release For starters, that will renew a fresh lease of life to Android market amid growing concerns of s

Here's What an iPad Looked Like in 1994 http://allthingsd.com/20110813/heres-what-an-ipad-looked-like-in-1994-video/ It's quite strange, it took almost another 15-16 years for iPad. If it had been successful some how right then, imagine what 15 years of iterations and evolution could have done to the whole tablet market. Glad at least, Apple made it real this time.