Girish's Blog

It's a great time to look up at the heavens. K and I got a chance to see ISS and Atlantis fly over Cupertino last night. The Atlantis was a very bright and followed by the ISS. Among the also-seen celestial objects: Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Half Moon Bay had a negative tide (where the low tide goes below the average low tide levels) today which was a great opportunity to go tide pooling. We reached the beach at 9 AM and the low tide had exposed miles of the beach that was normally underwater .

NPR's To The Best Of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK) has a 5 part series on Science and Religion: Can Science ever be reconciled with Religion? How did the Universe begin? Can Science prove there is a biology of belief? Can you believe in God if you accept Evolution? Where can you touch the fabric of mystery?

Preparing for change is never easy. Shift Happens gives a great perspective on what to expect. Be scared. Be prepared. It's already happening

How do you get your message across in a time when customers are bombarded with information from TV, Radio,websites, blogs, Wikis, e-mails, and blocking ads with TiVo ? Terry Gross has an engaging interview with Frank Lutz on Words that Work and there's an excerpt from the book also available. These are words that touch many organizational, marketing and political hot buttons. Expect to see more of these in my forthcoming blogs :-) 1. Imagine 2. Hassle-free 3. Lifestyle 4. Accountability 5. “Results” and the “Can-Do Spirit” 6. “Innovation” 7. “Renew, Revitalize, Rejuvenate, Restore, Rekindle, Reinvent” 9. “The Right to...” 10. “Patient-Centered” 11. “Investment” 12. “Casual Elegance” 13. “Independent” 14. “Peace of Mind” 15. “Certified” 16. “All-American” 17. “Prosperity” 18. “Spirituality” 19. “Financial Security” 20. A “Balanced Approach”

Just discovered a link to Shannon's "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" . If you were a electrical engineering geek in college, you know who who Shannon was. For the rest, there's Wikipedia .

After the dot-com boom of 2000 it appears to be the dot-11 boom of 2006. IEEE has come up with an alphabet soup for the wireless standards in the unlicensed band. Wikipedia has a good summary of the alphabet soup IEEE 802.11 - The original 1 Mbit/s and 2 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz RF and IR standard (1999) IEEE 802.11a - 54 Mbit/s, 5 GHz standard (1999, shipping products in 2001) IEEE 802.11b - Enhancements to 802.11 to support 5.5 and 11 Mbit/s (1999) IEEE 802.11c - Bridge operation procedures; included in the IEEE 802.1D standard (2001) IEEE 802.11d - International (country-to-country) roaming extensions (2001) IEEE 802.11e - Enhancements: QoS , including packet bursting (2005) IEEE 802.11F - Inter-Access Point Protocol (2003) Withdrawn February 2006 IEEE 802.11g - 54 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz standard (backwards compatible with b) (2003) IEEE 802.11h - Spectrum Managed 802.11a (5 GHz) for European compatibility (2004) IEEE 802.11i - Enhanced security (2004) IEEE 802.11j - Extensions for Jap...

This is the entrance to the "old shrine" at Sri Ramakrishna Math in Mylapore, Chennai. The arch is emblazoned with this uncompromising line from the Kaivalya Upanishad: न कर्मणा न प्रजया धनेन त्यगेनैके अमृतत्वमानशुः Neither by rituals, nor by progeny nor by riches but by renunciation alone one can attain immortality.

A view of National Highway 47 heading south towards Thiruvananthapuram. The single lane accomodates cycles, mopeds, motorbikes, cars, jeeps, buses and lorries. The only change I've seen in the last few years is the increased availability of mobile phones and ,since my last trip there in 2004, the increasing penetration of "broadband" (which is 256 kbps). Virtual connectivity has fast outpaced physical connectivity in a matter of a few years Ads for liqor and fabrics on the roadside have been replaced by hoardings advertising DSL, pre-paid, post-paid and SMS services. Shahrukh Khan's hawking Wireless Local Loop telephony and all high-rise buildings have sprouted cellular towers

Chandamama If you grew up in the 70s in India you were probably encouraged to read Chandamama . This magazine is now in it's sixtieth year. I still remember taking the latest copy of chandamama to read in school when I was in the 3rd standard. I opened to read it in the Moral Science class and the copy was promptly confiscated by the teacher. Looking back it seems quaint that we had a subject called "Moral Sciences", but then this was the 70s and we were fed large doses of Indira Gandhi's aphorisms: "Work more, Talk less", "Garibi Hatao" and of course frquent references to the "foreign hand"

Interviewing After interviewing dozens of potential candidates at my current employer, I ran into this piece on the " One-Question Interview " If you were allowed to ask only one question during the course of the interview, this would be it: Please think about your most significant accomplishment. Now, could you tell me all about it? To see why this simple question is so powerful, try it out on yourself. Imagine you're the candidate and I've just asked you this question. What accomplishment would you select? Then imagine over the course of the next 5-20 minutes that I obtained the following information from you about this accomplishment: A complete description of the accomplishment The company you worked for and what it did The actual results achieved: numbers, facts, changes made, details, amounts When it took place How long it took The importance of this accomplishment to the company Your title and role Why you were chosen The 3-4 biggest challenges you faced and...

India's bonds had their biggest plunge in seven months yesterday after Reddy unexpectedly raised short-term rates. It isn't additional rate hikes that traders fear -- it's that rapid growth will fuel inflation. The Reserve Bank of India was right to raise its overnight borrowing rate to a three-year high of 5.5 percent from 5.25 percent. Its fourth increase in 15 months proved two things. One, Reddy isn't in the pocket of politicians hoping he'd stop boosting rates. Two, inflation is a bigger threat than many in the markets appreciate. Investors need not panic. By raising its growth forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 8 percent from 7.5 percent, the central bank effectively admitted its rate increases aren't working. Reddy remains on the case, though. In a region in which many central banks are holding borrowing costs too low, India is throwing down the gauntlet. Reddy's balancing act is a pa...

Budget season is approaching in India and I can still remember the annual budget TV broadcast and the talking heads who followed - basically the communists saying that the changes announced were "anti-poor" and the businessmen being "cautiously optimistic". The Finance Ministry has a good website which provides links to the Union Budgets and Economic surveys. "The economy had registered a growth rate of 8.5 per cent in 2003-04, the highest ever except in 1975-76 and 1988-89. .... The year 2004-05, after starting with a point-to-point, annual inflation rate of 4.5 per cent on April 3, 2004 witnessed a peak level of inflation at 8.7 per cent on August 28, 2004 , the highest in the last four years. However, inflation has been on a declining trend and stood at ...

Astronomy My 4 year old may be starting out on new hobby - we read about constellations a few days ago and he had wanted to know more about the constellations. We went to Google to look at the shapes of the constellations of Cassiopeia and Orion. We also looked at Starry Bundle installed on our PC, and then decided to go out to take a look at the eastern skies to see if we could spot Orion the hunter and Sirius the dog and Cassiopeia the W. Unfortunately, the light pollution was so bad that we could only see about half a dozen stars in the entire night sky. Hopefully we'll be able to spot the stars tomorrow from a park. It would be a pity if he grew up without knowing what the night sky looked like.

What I'm reading Just finished Louis Sachar's Holes . Although it is classified as juvenile fiction, it still rates as one of the most satisfying books I've read for a long time. It's got everything a classic should have - hidden treasure, a boy in trouble with the law, deep friendships being formed, and a villianly authority figure. Everything in the story ties up nicely towards the ending, leaving no "holes"behind. I would rate this book as the Treasure Island of this generation.