Thursday, July 28, 2005
Poem of the Day
The Brain is wider than the Sky - Emily Dickinson
The Brain is wider than the Sky
For put them side by side
The one the other will contain
With ease and You beside
The Brain is deeper than the sea
For hold them Blue to Blue
The one the other will absorb
As Sponges Buckets do
The Brain is deeper than the sea
For hold them Blue to Blue
The one the other will absorb
As Sponges Buckets do
I believe that Emily Dickinson was saying that there are no boundaries for the capabilities of the mind. In essence like a sponge, the brain can take in so much that it is difficult to imagine how much "absorption" takes place.
The Brain is wider than the Sky
For put them side by side
The one the other will contain
With ease and You beside
The Brain is deeper than the sea
For hold them Blue to Blue
The one the other will absorb
As Sponges Buckets do
The Brain is deeper than the sea
For hold them Blue to Blue
The one the other will absorb
As Sponges Buckets do
I believe that Emily Dickinson was saying that there are no boundaries for the capabilities of the mind. In essence like a sponge, the brain can take in so much that it is difficult to imagine how much "absorption" takes place.
Who Created Modern India?
A part of credit goes to British Raj for making the Modern India.. says B P R VITHAL ,,
"the British did not come here to provide good government. They came to do business as the East India Company and later for the benefit of Great Britain. If, even so, they appeared sometimes to be better than native rulers, it gives us an idea of how our rulers of those days were. .."
"The British did better in education and health compared to the Indian princes. Our grievance arises only when we compare them to what free India could do in the 20th century. Yes, there were famines during the British rule, causing great distress."
"The British did not divide a united India. They united a divided India and that unity could not outlast their empire. The question is not whether the British came to help us. They came for profit. But we created the tragic situation in which a colonial power stepped in. We had an unpleasant choice, between the British, the French and the Dutch. Among them the British proved to be the best..."
Meanwhile , it was British Raj that made Sati as an Criminal Offence , says VK Ananth,,
KHUSHWANT SINGH, says,
"Despite their racial arrogance e.g. 'Whites Only Clubs' and crimes like the massacre of innocents in Jallianwala Bagh, they did a lot of good work as well. All our four metropolitan cities - Madras, Bombay, Calcutta and New Delhi - were built by them. So were our rails, roads, canals and the telegraph system. They introduced democratic norms in our municipalities, State and Central legislatures. Our constitution is patterned on theirs. Our law courts and system of Justice are also based on theirs. They gave us their language to make it ours to communicate with each other and the rest of the world. There was much less corruption in their time than it is today..."
"the British did not come here to provide good government. They came to do business as the East India Company and later for the benefit of Great Britain. If, even so, they appeared sometimes to be better than native rulers, it gives us an idea of how our rulers of those days were. .."
"The British did better in education and health compared to the Indian princes. Our grievance arises only when we compare them to what free India could do in the 20th century. Yes, there were famines during the British rule, causing great distress."
"The British did not divide a united India. They united a divided India and that unity could not outlast their empire. The question is not whether the British came to help us. They came for profit. But we created the tragic situation in which a colonial power stepped in. We had an unpleasant choice, between the British, the French and the Dutch. Among them the British proved to be the best..."
Meanwhile , it was British Raj that made Sati as an Criminal Offence , says VK Ananth,,
KHUSHWANT SINGH, says,
"Despite their racial arrogance e.g. 'Whites Only Clubs' and crimes like the massacre of innocents in Jallianwala Bagh, they did a lot of good work as well. All our four metropolitan cities - Madras, Bombay, Calcutta and New Delhi - were built by them. So were our rails, roads, canals and the telegraph system. They introduced democratic norms in our municipalities, State and Central legislatures. Our constitution is patterned on theirs. Our law courts and system of Justice are also based on theirs. They gave us their language to make it ours to communicate with each other and the rest of the world. There was much less corruption in their time than it is today..."
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Look out, world: Here comes booming India
Dick Morris writes,
India, not China, is the coming giant of the 21st century. And India, unlike China, has no history of imperialism or inclination to global domination.
The key to China’s coming failure and India’s growing success is Bejing’s dependence on manufacturing exports for its wealth and New Delhi’s focus on its service sector.
India’s economy is firmly rooted in the service sector. Almost half of its GDP comes from services, spurred by almost $4 billion of investment by American companies. Because of its English fluency, India is in a position to tap into the growth of the U.S. and U.K. economies and to provide low-cost, high-quality services, particularly to the high-tech market.
India, not China, is the coming giant of the 21st century. And India, unlike China, has no history of imperialism or inclination to global domination.
The key to China’s coming failure and India’s growing success is Bejing’s dependence on manufacturing exports for its wealth and New Delhi’s focus on its service sector.
India’s economy is firmly rooted in the service sector. Almost half of its GDP comes from services, spurred by almost $4 billion of investment by American companies. Because of its English fluency, India is in a position to tap into the growth of the U.S. and U.K. economies and to provide low-cost, high-quality services, particularly to the high-tech market.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Merit,Reservation made it for NRI's..
In a characteristically sharp piece of analysis, Chetan Dhruve writes,
How did we Indians achieve such astonishing success abroad, especially in the
US? How did the likes of Infosys and Wipro make it so big? The M-word, merit, is
only a half-answer. Behind this success is the much-hated and unacknowledged
R-word. Reservations, that is, the American version of it. ..
Red light for traffic cops
Amit Varma writes,
Remember when Georgia abolished its traffic police because they were too corrupt? If you missed the story, in 2004, the President of Georgia dismissed all its traffic police officers. There was absolutely no impact on the accident rate, (naturally, because the police were not doing the job at all.) Then he replaced them all with freshly recruited officers. The situation has apparently improved a lot there.
Now Ukraine is doing the same. [Link in the original.]
Here's an International Herald Tribune story on the reforms in Georgia, and another one by the New York Times. The second link is via a post by Reuben Abraham on the subject a few months ago.
Imagine if this happened in India, and all traffic cops got sacked. You could have this scene at a signal:
(Pot-bellied policeman stops car)
Driver: What happened, why have you stopped me? Here, see my license. (Tries to hand over license with 100 rupee note in it.)
Cop: No, I don't need to see your license. (Starts sniffling.)
Driver: Hey, what happened, why're you crying?
Cop: I got fired. All the traffic policemen got sacked today. The chief minister says that he doesn't want Mumbai to be like Shanghai any more, but like Gurjaani. (Starts sobbing.)
Driver: What? Gujarat?Cop: No, Gurjaani. It's a city in some place called Georgia. Now I'm out of a job, and I have three wives and one... I mean, one wife and three children to feed. (Starts wailing.)
Driver: Oh my goodness. So what will you do now? Why are you still at this traffic signal?
Cop: Well, I have to think of an alternative profession now, and a traffic signal is the only habitat I know. Do you have any old saris? (Starts clapping and saying, "De na Raju, main tere shaadi pe naachegi" in a hoarse voice.)
Yeah, wouldn't I love to see that day?
Remember when Georgia abolished its traffic police because they were too corrupt? If you missed the story, in 2004, the President of Georgia dismissed all its traffic police officers. There was absolutely no impact on the accident rate, (naturally, because the police were not doing the job at all.) Then he replaced them all with freshly recruited officers. The situation has apparently improved a lot there.
Now Ukraine is doing the same. [Link in the original.]
Here's an International Herald Tribune story on the reforms in Georgia, and another one by the New York Times. The second link is via a post by Reuben Abraham on the subject a few months ago.
Imagine if this happened in India, and all traffic cops got sacked. You could have this scene at a signal:
(Pot-bellied policeman stops car)
Driver: What happened, why have you stopped me? Here, see my license. (Tries to hand over license with 100 rupee note in it.)
Cop: No, I don't need to see your license. (Starts sniffling.)
Driver: Hey, what happened, why're you crying?
Cop: I got fired. All the traffic policemen got sacked today. The chief minister says that he doesn't want Mumbai to be like Shanghai any more, but like Gurjaani. (Starts sobbing.)
Driver: What? Gujarat?Cop: No, Gurjaani. It's a city in some place called Georgia. Now I'm out of a job, and I have three wives and one... I mean, one wife and three children to feed. (Starts wailing.)
Driver: Oh my goodness. So what will you do now? Why are you still at this traffic signal?
Cop: Well, I have to think of an alternative profession now, and a traffic signal is the only habitat I know. Do you have any old saris? (Starts clapping and saying, "De na Raju, main tere shaadi pe naachegi" in a hoarse voice.)
Yeah, wouldn't I love to see that day?
"Facts Do Not Speak"
Salman Rushdie on truth, which, he says, is "the first casualty in the 'war on terror'":
What is a “fact”? In an age beset by bitter disputes about reality, the word itself, and its close relative “truth”, become embattled. “Let the facts speak for themselves,” historians, politicians and columnists like to say, but facts do not speak — they must be interpreted and spoken for. And then, according to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, what is observed is altered by the observer’s presence. Facts shift, depending on who is interpreting them.
In war, as Aeschylus said 3,000 years ago, truth is the first casualty. Solid, reliable facts and objective truths, always hard to define, become more elusive in times of heightened conflict. The “war on terror” is a new sort of conflict, but truth is certainly embattled and the facts themselves are under heavy fire from all sides, and are daily receiving near-fatal wounds....
What is a “fact”? In an age beset by bitter disputes about reality, the word itself, and its close relative “truth”, become embattled. “Let the facts speak for themselves,” historians, politicians and columnists like to say, but facts do not speak — they must be interpreted and spoken for. And then, according to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, what is observed is altered by the observer’s presence. Facts shift, depending on who is interpreting them.
In war, as Aeschylus said 3,000 years ago, truth is the first casualty. Solid, reliable facts and objective truths, always hard to define, become more elusive in times of heightened conflict. The “war on terror” is a new sort of conflict, but truth is certainly embattled and the facts themselves are under heavy fire from all sides, and are daily receiving near-fatal wounds....
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Getting naked ........
Be that as it may, viewed dispassionately and without getting too much into the vortex of morality (since indecency, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder), I, for one, cannot escape the conclusion that the sight of disgustingly ugly naked bodies, with misplaced pretensions to attractiveness, is positively repugnant, even to a philistinee judge of works of art — or of the human anatomy, for that matter — like yours truly.writes,Khalid Ansari....
Monday, July 18, 2005
Many Faces of Internet..Good,Bad,Ugly..
The Sunday edition of New Indian Express has a cover story on the impact of internet,
"The Internet by being the most powerful tool invented, so far, for better knowledge sharing and collaborative working allows the human brain to work as a collective whole. And that is the greatest technological invention of Internet times: the collective human brain working from different parts of the world, in unison."
Thanks to the Internet, we have BPO's...
"...if there was no Internet, there would be no BPO Revolution. And without the BPO's, there would be less disposable income in the hands of the people from the developing world. It's the Internet that makes it possible for companies to get work done from a labour force spread across all corners of the world. Thanks to the Internet, we have BPO's. Thanks to the BPO's, more people have money. More money, means more economic activity for more people. And more of the trickle-down effect of economic development. "
The Internet as a social engineer,,
"..The Internet is media. And while we may like to think we make the media, it's often the reverse that happens. We form our impressions of Michael Jackson based on what we're fed by the media. The media social engineers us into believing what we believe about Michael Jackson. The media is now more fragmented than ever. We have more places than ever before from which to get our news. We can choose whom we want to help us make up our minds. The Internet is, today, the most powerful tool in this process of making up our minds. Every society is socially engineered by it's media. "
The Internet as an Industrial revolution ,,
"The Industrial Revolution allowed us to do less by helping us do more, through machines. The Internet allows us to do much, much more by bringing even more things to our desktops. If a machine made spinning yarn easier, the Internet makes buying yarn, even easier. Whereas the Industrial Revolution introduced us to the concept of boredom, for the first time, the Internet allows us no time to, even, be bored. Think about it, hasn't time become the biggest casualty of our age? So much so, you don't even have time to think about it! "
Lastly, The Internet as a nuisance,,
" The Internet is to our lives what the TV is/was to living room conversations. Why is it to our lives what TV is/was to living conversations? If you don't have the Internet, you're probably a lot more socially adept. It's the constant connectivity enabled by the Internet that makes the Internet such a nuisance. That makes weak humans want to keep checking for email, keep wondering whether they're wanted somewhere, and keep getting distracted from what they're doing by the thought of what they're missing. Without the Internet, the pressure to be connected wouldn't be the irresistible nuisance it is. It's always there, in front of you, enticing you, tempting you with the forbidden in the land where nothing is forbidden, and most things free. "
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Magic in the Marketplace
In an Excellent post ,Micheal Higgins writes:
Here is a link to the Forbes top 400 Americans.
Now looking at the list and seeing the many Waltons, Coxes, and Mars, it is clear that choosing your parents wisely is still the easiest way to become super-wealthy. Consider the Walton Family. Collectively they are worth nearly $100 billion – twice as wealthy as the Gates Family or the Buffet Family. Their wealth comes from Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a perfect example of what I call business magic: somehow they take the same workers and buy from the same wholesalers as other retailers, but their prices are lower. Like a magician’s trick, you see it happen but you can’t figure out how they did it.
The key to wealth is having a magic technology. Technology, in the sense that I’m using the word, is any means that you might use to take inputs (labor, capital) and turn it into a finished product or service that customers will buy. McDonald’s might be considered low-tech, but in reality that have sophisticated technology since it isn’t so easy to take high-school students and transform them into a force that produces a consistent quality product. Likewise, Wal-Mart is a very sophisticated technology. There are lots of people who would like to know how they do it.
Technology comes in two types: clone-able and magic. Clone-able technology can be duplicated by anyone simply be observing the end product. A chocolate-dipped frozen banana is clone-able. A really big paper clip is a clone-able. You don’t make any money from going into business by trying to create a new market with a clone-able technology. If you want to make money, you must have a magic technology – a technology that no one can figure out how you are doing it.
Looking at the list of wealthy Americans again, it is interesting to note who made the big money making computers: Michael Dell of Dell Computer. In the early 1980’s, you would have thought that IBM and Apple would make the big money. Well, they did okay for a while, but Dell, which wasn’t even around in the early 1980’s, took over in the late 1990s. I remember seeing one of the first Dell computers displayed in the late 1980’s in Austin Texas and thinking this computer is a piece of junk and the company will go under soon. I wish I had thought, “This guy is brilliant, I’ve got to buy Dell stock!”
What makes Dell special is nothing you can observe by looking at their product. Their “magic” is the ability to take your order, manufacture the computer to your specifications, and deliver it to your door in a week. That’s magic. It isn’t easy to clone that.
The IBM computer was the ultimate example the problem of having clone-able technology. Once the clones came in the market, it was all over for IBM. They thought their magic was their name, their network of service technicians, and a patent. Well, computers become obsolete before the break down, and as is often the case, the patent only proved to be a temporary obstacle. As for the name: “IBM compatible” worked wonders for Compaq and Dell.
The biggest mistake an entrepreneur can make is to try to open a new market with a technology that is clone-able. You do all the hard work (and use up a lot of money) doing market research for somebody else. You need to wonder, “Why did no one think of doing this before?” Maybe someone did, but they did not think there was a good market for the product, or if there were, then 10 other competitors would jump in a steal the market away. Think of the Sunshine Biscuit Company that invented the classic cream-filled cookie we call the “Oreo” cookie. You guessed it: Nabisco stole its cookie recipe and made a fortune off of someone else’s hard earned market research.
I read about a lady who lost a lot of money trying to market an oversized paperclip that had several patents on it. It was made of special steel so it wouldn’t deform. But it was too easy to clone. The patent didn’t help because the clone was made out of ordinary steel and did deform, but was made in China for one-twentieth the cost.
I saw on television once about a man who tried to market chocolate-covered frozen banana pieces. He did a lot of work trying to market his product. Then he tried to sell his company to a major company. He showed them all of the nice data he had collected showing how there was a profitable market for his product. In the category of “You need to have a good lawyer when you negotiate with a big company,” the company did not buy his company but just put it out of business by cloning his product.
There are some products that look extremely clone-able but haven’t been (yet). One example is Turbo-Tax. How can Intuit sell that for $50 apiece when all it does is calculate taxes? They cannot have a patent on that. Couldn’t any software company produce a clone for one or two million dollars and sell millions of copies for $2 apiece?
On the other hand, there are several products that haven’t been developed that many people want but manufactures are not brave enough to try to market. A good example is the self-cleaning toilet. There is definitely a market for it. Definitely, many companies could produce a workable prototype of a self-cleaning toilet. But if there is no magic associated with the technology, everyone will sit back, wait for the first entrant to do the hard marketing work of creating a market, and then a dozen clones will swoop in to take over the market.
Is there a market failure here? I am somewhat conflicted about this. It is clear the market prefers firms to cut costs than to create new products because cost savings go directly to the owners of the firm but new product releases create benefits to competitors who learn about the new market for free. On the other hand, if the entrepreneur is clever, he can often tie a clone-able technology with a magic technology and avoid being destroyed by the clones. For example, everyone thought Barnes and Noble would destroy Amazon when the on-line bookseller business took off. Selling books on-line looked very clone-able. But Amazon invented the best technology for processing credit card purchases. And they were able to develop software that magically knows what books you might like to buy from seeing your previous purchases. The moral of the story is that is can be really good to be the first to the market if able to spot opportunities to create some magic.
Nevertheless, I don’t think anyone will come out with a self-cleaning toilet in the next 10 years. A patent won’t protect anybody and there is little magic to be found in a toilet. Here’s one way to create the magic: we hold a contest for the best design for a self-cleaning toilet. The winner gets exclusive right to market self-cleaning toilets of any kind in the U.S. for 17 years. It probably won’t be the best technology after 17 years but, as it stands now, the only technology we will otherwise have is the do-it-yourself variety.
Here is a link to the Forbes top 400 Americans.
Now looking at the list and seeing the many Waltons, Coxes, and Mars, it is clear that choosing your parents wisely is still the easiest way to become super-wealthy. Consider the Walton Family. Collectively they are worth nearly $100 billion – twice as wealthy as the Gates Family or the Buffet Family. Their wealth comes from Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a perfect example of what I call business magic: somehow they take the same workers and buy from the same wholesalers as other retailers, but their prices are lower. Like a magician’s trick, you see it happen but you can’t figure out how they did it.
The key to wealth is having a magic technology. Technology, in the sense that I’m using the word, is any means that you might use to take inputs (labor, capital) and turn it into a finished product or service that customers will buy. McDonald’s might be considered low-tech, but in reality that have sophisticated technology since it isn’t so easy to take high-school students and transform them into a force that produces a consistent quality product. Likewise, Wal-Mart is a very sophisticated technology. There are lots of people who would like to know how they do it.
Technology comes in two types: clone-able and magic. Clone-able technology can be duplicated by anyone simply be observing the end product. A chocolate-dipped frozen banana is clone-able. A really big paper clip is a clone-able. You don’t make any money from going into business by trying to create a new market with a clone-able technology. If you want to make money, you must have a magic technology – a technology that no one can figure out how you are doing it.
Looking at the list of wealthy Americans again, it is interesting to note who made the big money making computers: Michael Dell of Dell Computer. In the early 1980’s, you would have thought that IBM and Apple would make the big money. Well, they did okay for a while, but Dell, which wasn’t even around in the early 1980’s, took over in the late 1990s. I remember seeing one of the first Dell computers displayed in the late 1980’s in Austin Texas and thinking this computer is a piece of junk and the company will go under soon. I wish I had thought, “This guy is brilliant, I’ve got to buy Dell stock!”
What makes Dell special is nothing you can observe by looking at their product. Their “magic” is the ability to take your order, manufacture the computer to your specifications, and deliver it to your door in a week. That’s magic. It isn’t easy to clone that.
The IBM computer was the ultimate example the problem of having clone-able technology. Once the clones came in the market, it was all over for IBM. They thought their magic was their name, their network of service technicians, and a patent. Well, computers become obsolete before the break down, and as is often the case, the patent only proved to be a temporary obstacle. As for the name: “IBM compatible” worked wonders for Compaq and Dell.
The biggest mistake an entrepreneur can make is to try to open a new market with a technology that is clone-able. You do all the hard work (and use up a lot of money) doing market research for somebody else. You need to wonder, “Why did no one think of doing this before?” Maybe someone did, but they did not think there was a good market for the product, or if there were, then 10 other competitors would jump in a steal the market away. Think of the Sunshine Biscuit Company that invented the classic cream-filled cookie we call the “Oreo” cookie. You guessed it: Nabisco stole its cookie recipe and made a fortune off of someone else’s hard earned market research.
I read about a lady who lost a lot of money trying to market an oversized paperclip that had several patents on it. It was made of special steel so it wouldn’t deform. But it was too easy to clone. The patent didn’t help because the clone was made out of ordinary steel and did deform, but was made in China for one-twentieth the cost.
I saw on television once about a man who tried to market chocolate-covered frozen banana pieces. He did a lot of work trying to market his product. Then he tried to sell his company to a major company. He showed them all of the nice data he had collected showing how there was a profitable market for his product. In the category of “You need to have a good lawyer when you negotiate with a big company,” the company did not buy his company but just put it out of business by cloning his product.
There are some products that look extremely clone-able but haven’t been (yet). One example is Turbo-Tax. How can Intuit sell that for $50 apiece when all it does is calculate taxes? They cannot have a patent on that. Couldn’t any software company produce a clone for one or two million dollars and sell millions of copies for $2 apiece?
On the other hand, there are several products that haven’t been developed that many people want but manufactures are not brave enough to try to market. A good example is the self-cleaning toilet. There is definitely a market for it. Definitely, many companies could produce a workable prototype of a self-cleaning toilet. But if there is no magic associated with the technology, everyone will sit back, wait for the first entrant to do the hard marketing work of creating a market, and then a dozen clones will swoop in to take over the market.
Is there a market failure here? I am somewhat conflicted about this. It is clear the market prefers firms to cut costs than to create new products because cost savings go directly to the owners of the firm but new product releases create benefits to competitors who learn about the new market for free. On the other hand, if the entrepreneur is clever, he can often tie a clone-able technology with a magic technology and avoid being destroyed by the clones. For example, everyone thought Barnes and Noble would destroy Amazon when the on-line bookseller business took off. Selling books on-line looked very clone-able. But Amazon invented the best technology for processing credit card purchases. And they were able to develop software that magically knows what books you might like to buy from seeing your previous purchases. The moral of the story is that is can be really good to be the first to the market if able to spot opportunities to create some magic.
Nevertheless, I don’t think anyone will come out with a self-cleaning toilet in the next 10 years. A patent won’t protect anybody and there is little magic to be found in a toilet. Here’s one way to create the magic: we hold a contest for the best design for a self-cleaning toilet. The winner gets exclusive right to market self-cleaning toilets of any kind in the U.S. for 17 years. It probably won’t be the best technology after 17 years but, as it stands now, the only technology we will otherwise have is the do-it-yourself variety.
Friday, July 15, 2005
"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish"
Last June 14, Steven Paul Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios , a leading figure in the computer industry. More popularly known as Steve Jobs,delivered a very thought-provoking commencement address at the Stanford University.
It gave some eye-opener to those who have just graduated from college--or even to those who are already working.
" Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice…Remembering you are going to die is the best way to avoid the fear that you have something to lose. "
He talks about the journey of his life, which "started before I was born".He calls this "joining the dots".
" You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life, "
text of the Commencement address ...
It gave some eye-opener to those who have just graduated from college--or even to those who are already working.
" Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice…Remembering you are going to die is the best way to avoid the fear that you have something to lose. "
He talks about the journey of his life, which "started before I was born".He calls this "joining the dots".
" You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life, "
text of the Commencement address ...
Quotes Worth Recoding - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
---------------------------------------
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
---------------------------------------
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
---------------------------------------
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
How Some Companies got their names ..
This article has been posted by Gangadhar Ambati ,
We all have a childlike love of playing with words, adding bits, Lego-style, to create new ones.And we often wonder where words come from and how they are formed.The answers can be found in a good dictionary or in any other related one.But some times I wonder how some companies got their names. Do you ever think about it? Then here you can find some info....
Apple Computers - Favourite Fruit Of Founder Steve Jobs. He Was Three Months Late In Filing A Name For The Business, And He Threatened To Call His Company Apple Computers If The Other Colleagues Didn't Suggest A Better Name By 5 O'clock.
C - Dennis Ritchie Improved On The B Programming Language And Called It 'New B'. He Later Called It C. Earlier B Was Created By Ken Thompson As A Revision Of The Bon Programming Language (Named After His Wife Bonnie).
CISCO - Its Not An Acronymn But The Short For San Francisco.
Compaq - Using Comp, For Computer, And PAQ To Denote A Small Integral Object.
Google - The Name Started As A Jokey Boast About The Amount Of Information The Search-Engine Would Be Able To Search. It Was Originally Named 'Googol', A Word For The Number Represented By 1 Followed By 100 Zeros. After Founders - Stanford Grad Students Sergey Brin And Larry Page Presented Their Project To An Angel Investor, They Received A Cheque Made Out To 'Google'!
Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith Got The Idea Of Accessing E-Mail Via The Web From A Computer Anywhere In The World. When Sabeer Bhatia Came Up With The Business Plan For The Mail Service, He Tried All Kinds Of Names Ending In Mail' And Finally Settled For Hotmail As It Included The Letters "Html" - The Programming Language Used To Write Web Pages. It Was Initially Referred To As Hotmail With Selective Upper Casing.
HP - Bill Hewlett And Dave Packard Tossed A Coin To Decide Whether The Company They Founded Would Be Called Hewlett-Packard Or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel - Bob Noyce And Gordon Moore Wanted To Name Their New Company 'Moore Noyce' But That Was Already Trademarked By A Hotel Chain, So They Had To Settle For An Acronym Of Integrated Electronics.
Java - Originally Called Oak By Creator James Gosling, From The Tree That Stood Outside His Window, The Programming Team Had To Look For A Substitute As There Was Another Language With The Same Name. Java Was Selected From A List Of Suggestions. It Came From The Name Of The Coffee That The Programmers Drank.
Linux - Linus Torvalds Originally Used The Minix OS On His System Which He Replaced By His OS. Hence The Working Name Was Linux (Linus' Minix). He Thought The Name To Be Too Egotistical And Planned To Name It Freax(Free + Freak + X). His Friend Ari Lemmke Encouraged Linus To Upload It To A Network So It Could Be Easily Downloaded. Ari Gave Linus A Directory Called Linux On His FTP Server, As He Did Not Like The Name Freax. (Linus' Parents Named Him After Two-Time Nobel Prize Winner Linus Pauling)
Microsoft - Devoted To Microcomputer Software. Originally Christened Micro-Soft, The '-' Was Removed Later On.
Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin Came Up With This Name When His Company Started Manufacturing Radios For Cars. The Popular Radio Company At The Time Was Called Victrola.
ORACLE - Larry Ellison And Bob Oats Were Working On A Consulting Project For The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The Code Name For The Project Was Called Oracle(The CIA Saw This As The System To Give Answers To All Questions Or Something Such). The Project Was Designed To Help Use The Newly Written SQL Code By IBM. The Project Eventually Was Terminated But Larry And Bob Decided To Finish What They Started And Bring It To The World. They Kept The Name Oracle And Created The RDBMS Engine. Later They Kept The Same Name For The Company.
Sony - From The Latin Word 'Sonus' Meaning Sound, And 'Sonny' A Slang Used By Americans To Refer To A Bright Youngster.
SUN - Founded By 4 Stanford University Buddies, SUN Is The Acronym For Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim Built A Microcomputer; Vinod Khosla Recruited Him And Scott Mcnealy To Manufacture Computers Based On It, And Bill Joy To Develop A UNIX-Based OS For The Computer.
Xerox - The Inventor, Chestor Carlson, Named His Product Trying To Say Dry' (As It Was Dry Copying, Markedly Different From The Then Prevailing Wet Copying). The Greek Root `Xer' Means Dry.
Yahoo! - The Word Was Invented By Jonathan Swift And Used In His Book Gulliver's Travels'. It Represents A Person Who Is Repulsive In Appearance And Action And Is Barely Human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang And David Filo Selected The Name Because They Considered Themselves Yahoos.
3M - Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company Started Off By Mining The Material Corundum Used To Make Sandpaper.
We all have a childlike love of playing with words, adding bits, Lego-style, to create new ones.And we often wonder where words come from and how they are formed.The answers can be found in a good dictionary or in any other related one.But some times I wonder how some companies got their names. Do you ever think about it? Then here you can find some info....
Apple Computers - Favourite Fruit Of Founder Steve Jobs. He Was Three Months Late In Filing A Name For The Business, And He Threatened To Call His Company Apple Computers If The Other Colleagues Didn't Suggest A Better Name By 5 O'clock.
C - Dennis Ritchie Improved On The B Programming Language And Called It 'New B'. He Later Called It C. Earlier B Was Created By Ken Thompson As A Revision Of The Bon Programming Language (Named After His Wife Bonnie).
CISCO - Its Not An Acronymn But The Short For San Francisco.
Compaq - Using Comp, For Computer, And PAQ To Denote A Small Integral Object.
Google - The Name Started As A Jokey Boast About The Amount Of Information The Search-Engine Would Be Able To Search. It Was Originally Named 'Googol', A Word For The Number Represented By 1 Followed By 100 Zeros. After Founders - Stanford Grad Students Sergey Brin And Larry Page Presented Their Project To An Angel Investor, They Received A Cheque Made Out To 'Google'!
Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith Got The Idea Of Accessing E-Mail Via The Web From A Computer Anywhere In The World. When Sabeer Bhatia Came Up With The Business Plan For The Mail Service, He Tried All Kinds Of Names Ending In Mail' And Finally Settled For Hotmail As It Included The Letters "Html" - The Programming Language Used To Write Web Pages. It Was Initially Referred To As Hotmail With Selective Upper Casing.
HP - Bill Hewlett And Dave Packard Tossed A Coin To Decide Whether The Company They Founded Would Be Called Hewlett-Packard Or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel - Bob Noyce And Gordon Moore Wanted To Name Their New Company 'Moore Noyce' But That Was Already Trademarked By A Hotel Chain, So They Had To Settle For An Acronym Of Integrated Electronics.
Java - Originally Called Oak By Creator James Gosling, From The Tree That Stood Outside His Window, The Programming Team Had To Look For A Substitute As There Was Another Language With The Same Name. Java Was Selected From A List Of Suggestions. It Came From The Name Of The Coffee That The Programmers Drank.
Linux - Linus Torvalds Originally Used The Minix OS On His System Which He Replaced By His OS. Hence The Working Name Was Linux (Linus' Minix). He Thought The Name To Be Too Egotistical And Planned To Name It Freax(Free + Freak + X). His Friend Ari Lemmke Encouraged Linus To Upload It To A Network So It Could Be Easily Downloaded. Ari Gave Linus A Directory Called Linux On His FTP Server, As He Did Not Like The Name Freax. (Linus' Parents Named Him After Two-Time Nobel Prize Winner Linus Pauling)
Microsoft - Devoted To Microcomputer Software. Originally Christened Micro-Soft, The '-' Was Removed Later On.
Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin Came Up With This Name When His Company Started Manufacturing Radios For Cars. The Popular Radio Company At The Time Was Called Victrola.
ORACLE - Larry Ellison And Bob Oats Were Working On A Consulting Project For The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The Code Name For The Project Was Called Oracle(The CIA Saw This As The System To Give Answers To All Questions Or Something Such). The Project Was Designed To Help Use The Newly Written SQL Code By IBM. The Project Eventually Was Terminated But Larry And Bob Decided To Finish What They Started And Bring It To The World. They Kept The Name Oracle And Created The RDBMS Engine. Later They Kept The Same Name For The Company.
Sony - From The Latin Word 'Sonus' Meaning Sound, And 'Sonny' A Slang Used By Americans To Refer To A Bright Youngster.
SUN - Founded By 4 Stanford University Buddies, SUN Is The Acronym For Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim Built A Microcomputer; Vinod Khosla Recruited Him And Scott Mcnealy To Manufacture Computers Based On It, And Bill Joy To Develop A UNIX-Based OS For The Computer.
Xerox - The Inventor, Chestor Carlson, Named His Product Trying To Say Dry' (As It Was Dry Copying, Markedly Different From The Then Prevailing Wet Copying). The Greek Root `Xer' Means Dry.
Yahoo! - The Word Was Invented By Jonathan Swift And Used In His Book Gulliver's Travels'. It Represents A Person Who Is Repulsive In Appearance And Action And Is Barely Human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang And David Filo Selected The Name Because They Considered Themselves Yahoos.
3M - Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company Started Off By Mining The Material Corundum Used To Make Sandpaper.
Lage Raho India ,lage raho.....
Suketu Mehta , has written a thoughtful Editorial "A Passage to India " in The New York Times....
Indian's Abroad are becoming a huge source for American Markets ,they are getting ready to
"Chase the Desi Dollars"
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Oomph goddess Mallika Sherawat,doesn’t need porn for publicity
Bollywood circles are abuzz with speculation if it is Mallika or her look-alike,,whatever it is she doesn't need pron for publicity,,,
Bachke Rehna Re Baba, 'Kis Kis ki kismat' kisney jana...
Bachke Rehna Re Baba, 'Kis Kis ki kismat' kisney jana...
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Ram Gopal Varma : The Story you haven't heard..
In an Excellent interview with Bhawana Somaaya Rgv shares his part of life which he never shared before..
I’VE never been a good son. Not as a child and not now. Well, at least not in the traditional sense.....
I wasn’t a good student. I failed twice (in class X and later during my entrance exams for engineering). Both times, there was no remorse. Today, I wonder why I didn’t feel the slightest concern for my poor parents who had put together their life’s savings to afford my college fees....
Success to me is not recognition from other people but the power to do what I want. True confidence is about conquering fears...
Quotes worth recording - Walter Savage Landor
This little quote reminds us that our thoughts are under our control. Many times we tend to forget this simple truth and get carried away with negative and unproductive thoughts.
-----------------------------------------------
"My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them" - Walter Savage Landor
-----------------------------------------------
(link via Rajesh)
-----------------------------------------------
"My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them" - Walter Savage Landor
-----------------------------------------------
(link via Rajesh)
India "Can produce,Can't Organise"
P. V. Indiresan writes,, in the The Business Line:
Yes, India succeeds in doing a mother's work,,,but is failing to do father's job.....
"....we can say that we have the ability to provide world-class
undergraduate education, and that we have begun to train world-class managers and designers. However, we cannot claim to have the ability to organise world-class research; in innovation and invention we still lag behind..."
Yes, India succeeds in doing a mother's work,,,but is failing to do father's job.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)