Saturday, December 30, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Sunday, December 17, 2006
winter break begins !
Fall semester exams got over on Thursday and that evening we had a final farewell hangout at PHI on Forbes with the graduating batch from 8 pm thru midnight. I got out at around 11:30 pm as I was not feeling comfortable in the smoke anymore.
Next day, I hit the gym for a few hours and enjoyed the steam room and the spa (Carnegie Mellon is a luxury brand - no second thoughts about that). Later, I had a talk with a recruiter about my offer and discussed the conversation with my career services folks to take a feedback if my conversation was in the correct direction.
On Friday evening, I decide to get freed of all the thoughts of the placements, etc. Consequently, we went for farewell of Shashank, an exchange student from Singapore. Playing charades was a nice light-hearted event with sumptuous meal (yummy !) to follow along with audio/video in the one of the Porter Hall rooms.
Later, we made a sudden decision to hit the Prive Ultralounge and have a good time - dancing !
Ambience: Good
Bar: Average to good (they messed up on my tab)
Crowd: Average to good again.
Dance floor: Can be well arranged.
DJ: Average to good (giving him good for being sensitive that there's Indian population and playing a Bhangra #)
Overall, I will give it a rating of 5.5 on a scale of 10. This is because I have experienced better ones earlier!
Next day, at 11 am, the phone rings - the dreaded call...from the landlady - is she going to visit? is the kitchen clean for her inspection? is she going to impose a fine on us? Apprehensions in my mind dont let me think but I HAVE to pick up the phone. What if it's a call to inform us of something else (say, cancellation of her inspection trip?). When I talk with her, she says, the maintenence guy is going to come in a while. Phew - a relief - because I was expecting something else. Meanwhile, I get ready before he comes because I have a lunch to attend with one of the earlier MISM reps as they are going.
Lunch was ok with a greek wrap (I've never had lunch at Shadygrove and so, I didn't know what to expect...shadysticks were nice though). Surprisingly, the Shadyside area was slightly crowded on a Saturday morning. It may be primarily due to holiday season and people doing holiday shopping.
Post-lunch, I came back and went to Waterfront for a small piece of work and later, got hung up on phone with a close friend and talked for long hours - it was as if we were catching up after a long time. Finally, I got hold of this great book by Mary Buffett "The Tao of Warren Buffet". I recommend it to everyone who wants to be successful in general.
In the evening, I came back to pickup my friends and went back to Waterfront for the movie Apocalypto. Nice movie ! It was nominated for a golden globe award in the best foreign film category - no wonder, it had English subtitles. More about the movie on one of my other blogs!
The weekend has been hedonistic so far and I want to catchup with my temple proceedings alongwith some other meetings. I wish I could've travelled to India or PRC this vacation but there are some things which are out of your control and you need to accept that !
Next day, I hit the gym for a few hours and enjoyed the steam room and the spa (Carnegie Mellon is a luxury brand - no second thoughts about that). Later, I had a talk with a recruiter about my offer and discussed the conversation with my career services folks to take a feedback if my conversation was in the correct direction.
On Friday evening, I decide to get freed of all the thoughts of the placements, etc. Consequently, we went for farewell of Shashank, an exchange student from Singapore. Playing charades was a nice light-hearted event with sumptuous meal (yummy !) to follow along with audio/video in the one of the Porter Hall rooms.
Later, we made a sudden decision to hit the Prive Ultralounge and have a good time - dancing !
Ambience: Good
Bar: Average to good (they messed up on my tab)
Crowd: Average to good again.
Dance floor: Can be well arranged.
DJ: Average to good (giving him good for being sensitive that there's Indian population and playing a Bhangra #)
Overall, I will give it a rating of 5.5 on a scale of 10. This is because I have experienced better ones earlier!
Next day, at 11 am, the phone rings - the dreaded call...from the landlady - is she going to visit? is the kitchen clean for her inspection? is she going to impose a fine on us? Apprehensions in my mind dont let me think but I HAVE to pick up the phone. What if it's a call to inform us of something else (say, cancellation of her inspection trip?). When I talk with her, she says, the maintenence guy is going to come in a while. Phew - a relief - because I was expecting something else. Meanwhile, I get ready before he comes because I have a lunch to attend with one of the earlier MISM reps as they are going.
Lunch was ok with a greek wrap (I've never had lunch at Shadygrove and so, I didn't know what to expect...shadysticks were nice though). Surprisingly, the Shadyside area was slightly crowded on a Saturday morning. It may be primarily due to holiday season and people doing holiday shopping.
Post-lunch, I came back and went to Waterfront for a small piece of work and later, got hung up on phone with a close friend and talked for long hours - it was as if we were catching up after a long time. Finally, I got hold of this great book by Mary Buffett "The Tao of Warren Buffet". I recommend it to everyone who wants to be successful in general.
In the evening, I came back to pickup my friends and went back to Waterfront for the movie Apocalypto. Nice movie ! It was nominated for a golden globe award in the best foreign film category - no wonder, it had English subtitles. More about the movie on one of my other blogs!
The weekend has been hedonistic so far and I want to catchup with my temple proceedings alongwith some other meetings. I wish I could've travelled to India or PRC this vacation but there are some things which are out of your control and you need to accept that !
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
IIT
Indian Institute of Technology are becoming more and more popular in Dilbert - check out today's strip ! Young Asok has long way to go.....lol !
Monday, December 11, 2006
iptv harp
http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06121110.htm?source=mppromo
its all coming together....iptv , zune, ipod, all the pieces complete the zigsaw puzzle - entertainment is the future !
its all coming together....iptv , zune, ipod, all the pieces complete the zigsaw puzzle - entertainment is the future !
Sunday, December 10, 2006
ie7
Most of the features are picked up from Mozilla and hence, they are nice. However, some problems prevail:
1. IE crashes a whole lot more when compared with Mozilla - that's annoying especially while you are composing that web-based email or making that entry into the blog.
2. IE still has ActiveX - something which I consider as a big threat.
3. The tab-closing X is at the window tab itself - this is not good as per usability as the tab can be closed without it being highlighted and lead to potential loss of information on that window by accident.
Seems like the folks in Redmond have some more miles to walk before their products come close to those created by the open-source folks.
1. IE crashes a whole lot more when compared with Mozilla - that's annoying especially while you are composing that web-based email or making that entry into the blog.
2. IE still has ActiveX - something which I consider as a big threat.
3. The tab-closing X is at the window tab itself - this is not good as per usability as the tab can be closed without it being highlighted and lead to potential loss of information on that window by accident.
Seems like the folks in Redmond have some more miles to walk before their products come close to those created by the open-source folks.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
valuation
This course has been awesome so far !
Carolyn Levine, expert in Accounting, today taught us how to value a financially distressed firm. We had an assignment on Rite-Aid of the time when they were distressed.
Her earlier lectures on various topics have been good as well. I hope my project group on valuing a firm goes well. We opted for Spherion amongst the list of companies which professor chose as being mispriced. Letsee what we come up with --well, I will get back to work now.
Carolyn Levine, expert in Accounting, today taught us how to value a financially distressed firm. We had an assignment on Rite-Aid of the time when they were distressed.
Her earlier lectures on various topics have been good as well. I hope my project group on valuing a firm goes well. We opted for Spherion amongst the list of companies which professor chose as being mispriced. Letsee what we come up with --well, I will get back to work now.
Monday, December 04, 2006
roomie's offer
It was such a pleasant news today morning ! Arun got an offer from Cisco ! Offer is completely gangsta-style...Cali location and one of the best networking firms in the industry.
As soon as all the roomies are done with their job offers - we plan to host parties (party every weekend) at our townhouse .....it will be a Spring party season !!!
As soon as all the roomies are done with their job offers - we plan to host parties (party every weekend) at our townhouse .....it will be a Spring party season !!!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
future
check out Dean Khosla's clip on future role of American engineers. He walks the talk - check out the number of inter-disciplinary programs offered on his campus.
Cross-cultural sensitivity, management techniques, and ability to be a good engineering manager are the keys to be able to deploy assets globally.
....thus begins my journey in search of a global career.....
Cross-cultural sensitivity, management techniques, and ability to be a good engineering manager are the keys to be able to deploy assets globally.
....thus begins my journey in search of a global career.....
Friday, December 01, 2006
Course: Principles of Finance
The course on principles of Finance introduces the basics of financial principles to the students. The course's objectives is to enable future IT managers to understand how project selection is done by the Finance office when IT proposes a project.
CAPM, NPV, FV, etc are imbibed well with the assignments provided for the course.
Lynn Pastor is the instructor for this course and her grading scheme is highly objective. I have not seen other programs offering such a mix of courses which are so relevant to the industry needs.
This calls for the recruiters to look once more into the valuation of the MISM students who have grasped these concepts well before they make an offer.
CAPM, NPV, FV, etc are imbibed well with the assignments provided for the course.
Lynn Pastor is the instructor for this course and her grading scheme is highly objective. I have not seen other programs offering such a mix of courses which are so relevant to the industry needs.
This calls for the recruiters to look once more into the valuation of the MISM students who have grasped these concepts well before they make an offer.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
laptops n injuries
Laptops, which are becoming increasingly popular (their sales growing at faster pace than desktops), are endangering injuries.
Injuries for shoulders, wrists , spine, and even fertility !
For spine - read here
For fertility - read here
For wrists - read here
For avoiding injuries, check this out - click here and here
I hated when my previous employer gave me laptop. I hated it when I had to put in 2100 $ in order to buy a laptop. It does not have facility for another keyboard which is ergonomically better. Dayyuuuum...I could not buy the $10 deal on wireless ergonomic keyboards because it will help me stay healthy. Laptops are similar to fastfoods - instant gratification - however, unhealthy !
This is sheerly driven by mindsets of some capitalists who want to extract your money away from you ! Sounds cynical but analyze this - Employers give you laptops so they can extract more from you. Manufacturers make it because they make more margins on these ! Lenovo makes decent margins on the laptops !
Do you want to fall for it?
Injuries for shoulders, wrists , spine, and even fertility !
For spine - read here
For fertility - read here
For wrists - read here
For avoiding injuries, check this out - click here and here
I hated when my previous employer gave me laptop. I hated it when I had to put in 2100 $ in order to buy a laptop. It does not have facility for another keyboard which is ergonomically better. Dayyuuuum...I could not buy the $10 deal on wireless ergonomic keyboards because it will help me stay healthy. Laptops are similar to fastfoods - instant gratification - however, unhealthy !
This is sheerly driven by mindsets of some capitalists who want to extract your money away from you ! Sounds cynical but analyze this - Employers give you laptops so they can extract more from you. Manufacturers make it because they make more margins on these ! Lenovo makes decent margins on the laptops !
Do you want to fall for it?
Saturday, November 25, 2006
thanksgiving
This year, I was fortunate to get to attend Thanksgiving with an American family - well, I will correct myself, Indo-American family. Bal-n-Val (from Carnegie Mellon) have been great friends and they invited me for the Thanksgiving dinner.
The decoration and the efforts put in by the couple was admirable!
Darn-it-car-battery failed in the afternoon while I was in ShadySide on Thanksgivings. I was scheduled to go to the temple before the dinner event. Thanks to Bal who came to my rescue and picked me up from Squirrel Hill.
In contrast with last year's dishes, and thanks to Val that the meals were a vegetarian's delight !!! Tofurky - yummmmmmmmmy....... deliiiiciiiiiious ...I asked for the seasoning and I have to pick that one from Williams Sonoma. Bal tasted it and mentioned that there was barely any difference between the Turkey and the Tofurky - (I think I got a perfect substitute then). I have all the leftovers which will continue with me till Sunday.
To share with my readers, I took a picture of the sight at the table (above). The family sat around the table and we had a small prayer before we could start.
Post-dinner, we sat reading the ads in the handouts and I made a quick shopping list. The hosts were kind enough to offer me a shelter for the night and also, Bal was awesomely hospitable to take me back to my home for a quick pick up of my stuff for the stayover. I cannot thank the hosts enough !
Next day, early morning I woke up for the shopping - yay ! By the time we reached BestBuy, I had anticipated that the lines must've disappeared but Best Buy's line was fairly long and hence, I moved on to Circuit City. I got some stuff at Circuit City and was standing in the 90 minute atrocious queue for checking out the items. I should've made an intelligent choice to opt out of the queue without checking out. It wasn't worth it....anyways, my items are missing when I came back - I am unable to recall if I didn't get them inside the door and left them on my porch.
Later, I met Myers & Co (Val n her family) at Target and I bought some stuff there as per my list. We moved to Kohl's and I felt - daayuuumm, I should've come here before :) Kohl's had quite a bit of trendy variety - no wonder it was so crowded. I got quite a bit of stuff there. Following Kohls', we drove to downtown to get a shot at Saks and Macy's. I got a Nautica topcoat which Val had pointed out last night - great deal ! Thus, the theme this year undoubtedly was building up my winter collection unlike last year which was building up my shirts' section. Val's sister got her Louis Vuitton bag at Saks/Macy's. Right after, I got my John Ashford gift tie :) - Thanks !!!
Finally, we went to an Italian place for lunch - Girasole in Shadyside. They had delicious dishes and entremets out there. Salad was great - pretty different from the Olive Garden regular I've got used to ! We went around in some shops for checking out the stuff in ShadySide shops.
The day ended when I was dropped out at my place ( I was shopped out !) - this reminded me of my Dusherra days in Mumbai till 2002 .....they were just like this - having lunches and dinners with family and running around the town with family for shopping - this one will be a memorable Thanksgiving day for me !
The decoration and the efforts put in by the couple was admirable!Darn-it-car-battery failed in the afternoon while I was in ShadySide on Thanksgivings. I was scheduled to go to the temple before the dinner event. Thanks to Bal who came to my rescue and picked me up from Squirrel Hill.
In contrast with last year's dishes, and thanks to Val that the meals were a vegetarian's delight !!! Tofurky - yummmmmmmmmy....... deliiiiciiiiiious ...I asked for the seasoning and I have to pick that one from Williams Sonoma. Bal tasted it and mentioned that there was barely any difference between the Turkey and the Tofurky - (I think I got a perfect substitute then). I have all the leftovers which will continue with me till Sunday.
To share with my readers, I took a picture of the sight at the table (above). The family sat around the table and we had a small prayer before we could start.
Post-dinner, we sat reading the ads in the handouts and I made a quick shopping list. The hosts were kind enough to offer me a shelter for the night and also, Bal was awesomely hospitable to take me back to my home for a quick pick up of my stuff for the stayover. I cannot thank the hosts enough !
Next day, early morning I woke up for the shopping - yay ! By the time we reached BestBuy, I had anticipated that the lines must've disappeared but Best Buy's line was fairly long and hence, I moved on to Circuit City. I got some stuff at Circuit City and was standing in the 90 minute atrocious queue for checking out the items. I should've made an intelligent choice to opt out of the queue without checking out. It wasn't worth it....anyways, my items are missing when I came back - I am unable to recall if I didn't get them inside the door and left them on my porch.
Later, I met Myers & Co (Val n her family) at Target and I bought some stuff there as per my list. We moved to Kohl's and I felt - daayuuumm, I should've come here before :) Kohl's had quite a bit of trendy variety - no wonder it was so crowded. I got quite a bit of stuff there. Following Kohls', we drove to downtown to get a shot at Saks and Macy's. I got a Nautica topcoat which Val had pointed out last night - great deal ! Thus, the theme this year undoubtedly was building up my winter collection unlike last year which was building up my shirts' section. Val's sister got her Louis Vuitton bag at Saks/Macy's. Right after, I got my John Ashford gift tie :) - Thanks !!!
Finally, we went to an Italian place for lunch - Girasole in Shadyside. They had delicious dishes and entremets out there. Salad was great - pretty different from the Olive Garden regular I've got used to ! We went around in some shops for checking out the stuff in ShadySide shops.
The day ended when I was dropped out at my place ( I was shopped out !) - this reminded me of my Dusherra days in Mumbai till 2002 .....they were just like this - having lunches and dinners with family and running around the town with family for shopping - this one will be a memorable Thanksgiving day for me !
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
salary value cities
This concept makes sense - "Salary value" cities !
A friend of mine chose to live in a small town in southern IL cos it saved money for her - a lots of it. moreover, it was convenient 35 min train ride from work to home and precision timing from home to train stn and work to train stn of 2.5 mins. She earns a package similar to what a Big 4 is offering me but can save more because cost of living at her place is so low. Smart lady !
More savings imply - higher disposable income later. Convenient travel to airport also implies better conditions to live. Moreover, money is well-spent. Time is well spent on weekends for productive causes.
Trade-off is that there is barely any socialisation ! Also, possibility for seeking opportunities is less. However, if one has decided to stick out with the firm for several years, then this kind of salary is a huge plus.
...considering whether i should take up this offer and change my location or go ahead with this and think of jumping ?
A friend of mine chose to live in a small town in southern IL cos it saved money for her - a lots of it. moreover, it was convenient 35 min train ride from work to home and precision timing from home to train stn and work to train stn of 2.5 mins. She earns a package similar to what a Big 4 is offering me but can save more because cost of living at her place is so low. Smart lady !
More savings imply - higher disposable income later. Convenient travel to airport also implies better conditions to live. Moreover, money is well-spent. Time is well spent on weekends for productive causes.
Trade-off is that there is barely any socialisation ! Also, possibility for seeking opportunities is less. However, if one has decided to stick out with the firm for several years, then this kind of salary is a huge plus.
...considering whether i should take up this offer and change my location or go ahead with this and think of jumping ?
Saturday, November 18, 2006
opera
Last night, I went through a rollercoaster of emotions.
Romeo n Juliet was the one I watched at Pittsburgh Opera.
Balcony seats were subsidized for CMU students.
I wasn't a great fan of this production - however, they did well. Juliet role was played by a good actress - however, Romeo's character could've been played better. Juliet's father wasn't as effective as well. Other Montagues were just fine.
We (myself and 4 other CMU colleagues) arrived at the opera by 8:10 pm - Delay can be attributed to parking spots being unavailable in downtown due to the lightshow. huhh- talk about parking issues in Pgh downtown.
After Doc's Place party for Heinz school, we drove down to downtown. I had wrong directions but fortunately, someone knew about it. I parked the car at a spot which I didn't note down and then we were running (all dressed up) around downtown to find the Opera - finally, when we reached there - the show had just started - so, didn't miss much.
While the show was on, I reminsced the song by Mary Chapin Carpenter - I'll never fall in love again. At the same time, the recently read book's thoughts flashed in front of my eyes; those of the book- The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck.
As Romeo starts falling for Juliet and she says to him - if this is a lighthearted love, then let me remain in my grief and tears and he need not meet her again. Juliet questions his motivations in a style that reminds me of the OST by Bryan Ferry - Will you love me tomorrow?
When cruel sorrow of separation hits them, both are in despair. Again, the Hindi song of Wo Lamhe started running in my head - I should get it out of my CD tracks in my car. Bee, are you reading this?
The book mentioned above mentions falling in love as dissolution of ego-boundaries. After a while, when love subsides (what I call as - when honeymoon period is over....after say 5-10 years) ego boundaries emerge again. She may not like his friends and/or vice-versa. He may want to make love but she may not and/or vice-versa at different points in time.
While searching for partner, it has to be based more than that of perishable attributes. It has to be based on whether the partners are leading to each other's spiritual growth. My Dronacharya-type guru also recently left his long-lived marriage and married another lady - yea, I am talking about Warren Buffet - the sage from Omaha.
Bossa Nova - a nice lounge recommended by a fellow CMU person was a nice place to explore after the opera. While heading back home, I had to search my car- as I had forgotten where I parked it. On the way back home, a colleague had to check out India Garden; unfortunately, it was just closed by 1:15 am, when we reached there.
Life's a bittersweet symphony !
I should not watch tragedies after all.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It is not worth $17 :-P
Romeo n Juliet was the one I watched at Pittsburgh Opera.
Balcony seats were subsidized for CMU students.I wasn't a great fan of this production - however, they did well. Juliet role was played by a good actress - however, Romeo's character could've been played better. Juliet's father wasn't as effective as well. Other Montagues were just fine.
We (myself and 4 other CMU colleagues) arrived at the opera by 8:10 pm - Delay can be attributed to parking spots being unavailable in downtown due to the lightshow. huhh- talk about parking issues in Pgh downtown.
After Doc's Place party for Heinz school, we drove down to downtown. I had wrong directions but fortunately, someone knew about it. I parked the car at a spot which I didn't note down and then we were running (all dressed up) around downtown to find the Opera - finally, when we reached there - the show had just started - so, didn't miss much.
While the show was on, I reminsced the song by Mary Chapin Carpenter - I'll never fall in love again. At the same time, the recently read book's thoughts flashed in front of my eyes; those of the book- The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck.
As Romeo starts falling for Juliet and she says to him - if this is a lighthearted love, then let me remain in my grief and tears and he need not meet her again. Juliet questions his motivations in a style that reminds me of the OST by Bryan Ferry - Will you love me tomorrow?
When cruel sorrow of separation hits them, both are in despair. Again, the Hindi song of Wo Lamhe started running in my head - I should get it out of my CD tracks in my car. Bee, are you reading this?
The book mentioned above mentions falling in love as dissolution of ego-boundaries. After a while, when love subsides (what I call as - when honeymoon period is over....after say 5-10 years) ego boundaries emerge again. She may not like his friends and/or vice-versa. He may want to make love but she may not and/or vice-versa at different points in time.
While searching for partner, it has to be based more than that of perishable attributes. It has to be based on whether the partners are leading to each other's spiritual growth. My Dronacharya-type guru also recently left his long-lived marriage and married another lady - yea, I am talking about Warren Buffet - the sage from Omaha.
Bossa Nova - a nice lounge recommended by a fellow CMU person was a nice place to explore after the opera. While heading back home, I had to search my car- as I had forgotten where I parked it. On the way back home, a colleague had to check out India Garden; unfortunately, it was just closed by 1:15 am, when we reached there.
Life's a bittersweet symphony !
I should not watch tragedies after all.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It is not worth $17 :-P
offer
I haven't blogged this since a while... I have an offer ....Its for the position of Consultant at one of the Big 4 - not an Analyst, not a Sr Analyst - but a Consultant.
The recruiter at the Firm's Pgh office called me 2 weeks back to give me the good news. Later, she referred me to the NYC office recruiter because NYC office was my first preference.
Unless they have a reasonable creative solution for the same....
As Le Chiffre says in the bond movie......
Freedom Fighter: "Do you believe in God, Mr. Le Chiffre."
Le Chiffre: "No. I believe in Reasonable Rate of Return."
The recruiter at the Firm's Pgh office called me 2 weeks back to give me the good news. Later, she referred me to the NYC office recruiter because NYC office was my first preference.
Unless they have a reasonable creative solution for the same....
As Le Chiffre says in the bond movie......
Freedom Fighter: "Do you believe in God, Mr. Le Chiffre."
Le Chiffre: "No. I believe in Reasonable Rate of Return."
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
...SFO...
Here's a small post on my memorable trip to SFO !
I flew on Thursday evening from Pittsburgh at 16:30 ET and with a 2-hour stop at Denver, flew to SFO. At Denver, I met a fantastic lady, Ms. Brooke Peterson. She was sitting down on the floor because there was just one switch and I was seated in the chair near it (charging up my laptop). I offered her the seat because my charger was extensible. With a gradual small talk, I got to know that SFO was home to her (man, she stays near the Golden Gate bridge - if I get a lottery house there - I will never leave it) and that she travelled for job. Distinct part of her job was that she could negotiate only a 4-day work week because she has 2 kids. Most interesting part of the lady's persona was that she had travelled Asia, Europe, etc. Multi-cultural exposure gave her a fairly open mind and a warm personality. Her hubby was Persian (Iran) and studied in UCal Berkeley for architecture. WoW ! She reminded me of Bee - pretty much.
The hotel room was simply awesome.
Check out my room's 3-D view at: http://www.hotelvitale.com/hotel/tours.php and click on "Superior Water View room."
Pictures of the room are on the link above and hence, I will not post them here.
I was impressed !
At 6:30 am next morning, the dawn breaks and I see this exotic view of sunrise with the Bay Bridge in between. It was so surreal. I woke up despite of the splitting headache and went out of my room. In the elevator, I met this lady and we talked about how beautiful the morning was and then we started walking and jogging together along Embarcadero ! Some of the pictures
are:Once the whole college-day affair was over, we (SalesForce team and candidates) had a dinner at Amici's near AT&T Park. Myself and Danielle (the smarty pants Berk candidate) walked down from near my hotel to this place. Nice evening! Later, I called up my high school buddy and he was kindda tired. As soon as I hit the room, I hit the bed and slept. TV was on and I woke up at 1:30 am to realise that I was knocked down by the whole exhausting journey and the busy day.
On Saturday, I wake up and call up my friend, who eventually lands up at 11:30 am. Meanwhile, I walk down some of the places on
Embarcadero and explored our terrace and the view from the terrace was awesome !So, here's what I captured. We went to Piers, took a one hour boat ride around Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. Some more pictures.....
Yogesh's place was kindda cool - it was in San Jose. His roommate was warm and friendly - a recent MBA grad working for E&Y. Its Boston less all its things I dont like ! A few complaints though would be that there is no metro.
Main issue is with the expensive housing ! If only housing was cheaper here....reminds me of bbay ! but then Bbay was bigger than this.
Trip to China ....
I am contemplating about this trip.....
click here
It will be a good tour for sure. If I go to India - I will probably spend as much and barely any benefit. Instead, if I go here, I will get to learn something worth a course load. Most of the courses are valued at about this price - about 2-3k.
I will have to make up my mind by tomorrow.
click here
It will be a good tour for sure. If I go to India - I will probably spend as much and barely any benefit. Instead, if I go here, I will get to learn something worth a course load. Most of the courses are valued at about this price - about 2-3k.
I will have to make up my mind by tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Rendezvous with a Silicon Valley scientist !
An interesting rendezvous occured while I was flying back from SFO. An extremely eclectic company - an IBM IT Specialist who was earlier an researcher in one of the Silicon valley firms. He was my co-seat passenger!
It started off with him cautioning me about my coffee and helping me with something. Random small talk started...from why I was in SFO and then it moved on to his background and an arbitrary mention of Knowledge Management (KM) from me sparked the talk. He found the idea really interesting and wanted it to be implemented for his group.
Initially, when I got to know that he is from IBM and asking me more details, I thought he was testing me or something and I became cynical. Here's person in his late 50s, early 60s - travelling as an IT specialist for the Big Blue - and asking me help with implementation concepts on KM. Extremely eloquent, and articulate scientist - he exposed me to what he used to do 25 years ago in IT !
He suddenly asked me to elaborate on the KM idea and asked for an estimate. I said - it is difficult to estimate without details. I used my probing skills to gather high level requirements. While getting requirements from him he elaborated on how the Big Blue was organized and structured. He also mentioned how his group was structured. I clarified that his scope must be limited to making business plan and needs emergence rather than implementation details. He must mention requirements to management and design, engineering, etc will be done by other specialists. I gave him the usual house-building analogy !
Apparently, from the scope, cost, and schedule, I came up with a figure and he was taken aback - so much !? I said - this is if you get it done from a team at US costs and including license costs. If he did it using IBM systems and manhours, I was not sure what will be his estimates. However, he mentioned an instance regarding how cost-charging is done internally and blue-dollars move at a very costly rate.
Clearly, in my recommendations, I had also included the org-feasibility aspect because this had a slightly heavy political interaction in various groups.
Finally, we came to a point where we discussed about how he got to the Bay Area because he had done his PhD from SUNY Buffalo. He was working in SFO since 25 years. In the first 5 years, he rented apartments and later, got his own house. Man, he was lucky !(I wondered if I would ever be able to buy a house in that area. My SFO tour had some interesting insights which I will blog in a separate post !)
He gave me his visiting card and I gave him mine. My attire was misleading(too casual) and may have initially made him think that I was another young punk. Soon to realise that he needed me for helping him with his business case to his executives. I tried getting it in form of a final semester project - however, somehow, he was reluctant because it wasn't in his hands ! Well, I was ready to help him anyways - I just tried negotiating something which will help both of us.
Finally, I suggested him to consult one of his teams internally before we could even discuss further. We departed on a great note to contact each other and that was it for my rendezvous with a Silicon Valley scientist - a whole 4 hours of stimulating discussion!
It started off with him cautioning me about my coffee and helping me with something. Random small talk started...from why I was in SFO and then it moved on to his background and an arbitrary mention of Knowledge Management (KM) from me sparked the talk. He found the idea really interesting and wanted it to be implemented for his group.
Initially, when I got to know that he is from IBM and asking me more details, I thought he was testing me or something and I became cynical. Here's person in his late 50s, early 60s - travelling as an IT specialist for the Big Blue - and asking me help with implementation concepts on KM. Extremely eloquent, and articulate scientist - he exposed me to what he used to do 25 years ago in IT !
He suddenly asked me to elaborate on the KM idea and asked for an estimate. I said - it is difficult to estimate without details. I used my probing skills to gather high level requirements. While getting requirements from him he elaborated on how the Big Blue was organized and structured. He also mentioned how his group was structured. I clarified that his scope must be limited to making business plan and needs emergence rather than implementation details. He must mention requirements to management and design, engineering, etc will be done by other specialists. I gave him the usual house-building analogy !
Apparently, from the scope, cost, and schedule, I came up with a figure and he was taken aback - so much !? I said - this is if you get it done from a team at US costs and including license costs. If he did it using IBM systems and manhours, I was not sure what will be his estimates. However, he mentioned an instance regarding how cost-charging is done internally and blue-dollars move at a very costly rate.
Clearly, in my recommendations, I had also included the org-feasibility aspect because this had a slightly heavy political interaction in various groups.
Finally, we came to a point where we discussed about how he got to the Bay Area because he had done his PhD from SUNY Buffalo. He was working in SFO since 25 years. In the first 5 years, he rented apartments and later, got his own house. Man, he was lucky !(I wondered if I would ever be able to buy a house in that area. My SFO tour had some interesting insights which I will blog in a separate post !)
He gave me his visiting card and I gave him mine. My attire was misleading(too casual) and may have initially made him think that I was another young punk. Soon to realise that he needed me for helping him with his business case to his executives. I tried getting it in form of a final semester project - however, somehow, he was reluctant because it wasn't in his hands ! Well, I was ready to help him anyways - I just tried negotiating something which will help both of us.
Finally, I suggested him to consult one of his teams internally before we could even discuss further. We departed on a great note to contact each other and that was it for my rendezvous with a Silicon Valley scientist - a whole 4 hours of stimulating discussion!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Google =WalMart?
There was an interesting discussion of me with my friends. It was partially driven by something I had seen 2 years ago - EPIC
I teased the thought whether Google was becoming the WalMart of the cyberspace. The parallels are being drawn from the fact that Google is shattering the traditional myths, consolidating businesses to create economies of scale, and entering in various businesses with disruptive models.
There will come a time when there will be mass-protests against Google too....just like there are right now against WalMart, in general, and while Wal-Mart was trying to enter banking and financial services industry.
The whole thought process was triggered by the fact that Google is making headlines everyday and the recent proposal to dip their toes in the waters of radio industry was simply awesome !
Click here to read the story. It also decided to get into print media.
Under such conditions, will a career @ Google make sense? One, they dont have a career path defined (that's not required), and second they will try to exert pressure on their suppliers - for instance, the universities for the labor. Google has significant presence on Carnegie Mellon campus and is doing whatever it takes to woo the students, even if it involves their reps cursing the rivals Microsoft (I was taken aback when two of their reps ripped off Microsoft...and these were kids - just 6-8 months experience...clearly indicating their immaturity and arrogance). However, I think that the crowd at CMU is discerning enough to understand the whole deal....especially the management students.
Disclaimer: I have no grudges with Google...but the whole disruptive mindset is worth a critic - I may post something in details later (which will focus towards the fact that disruptive mindset is good in some arenas and not all.)
I teased the thought whether Google was becoming the WalMart of the cyberspace. The parallels are being drawn from the fact that Google is shattering the traditional myths, consolidating businesses to create economies of scale, and entering in various businesses with disruptive models.
There will come a time when there will be mass-protests against Google too....just like there are right now against WalMart, in general, and while Wal-Mart was trying to enter banking and financial services industry.
The whole thought process was triggered by the fact that Google is making headlines everyday and the recent proposal to dip their toes in the waters of radio industry was simply awesome !
Click here to read the story. It also decided to get into print media.
Under such conditions, will a career @ Google make sense? One, they dont have a career path defined (that's not required), and second they will try to exert pressure on their suppliers - for instance, the universities for the labor. Google has significant presence on Carnegie Mellon campus and is doing whatever it takes to woo the students, even if it involves their reps cursing the rivals Microsoft (I was taken aback when two of their reps ripped off Microsoft...and these were kids - just 6-8 months experience...clearly indicating their immaturity and arrogance). However, I think that the crowd at CMU is discerning enough to understand the whole deal....especially the management students.
Disclaimer: I have no grudges with Google...but the whole disruptive mindset is worth a critic - I may post something in details later (which will focus towards the fact that disruptive mindset is good in some arenas and not all.)
Verizon near content deal with YouTube
click here
The article just manifests one of the aspects mentioned in the IPTV paper made for Telecom Management course.
This is one of the business models emerging: sourcing content for the IPTV paradigm.
Other business models will include partnerships, JVs, and buyouts.
Just recently, YouTube signed up with Universal, BMG, Sony, and CBS.
Its coming and its BiG !!!
The article just manifests one of the aspects mentioned in the IPTV paper made for Telecom Management course.
This is one of the business models emerging: sourcing content for the IPTV paradigm.
Other business models will include partnerships, JVs, and buyouts.
Just recently, YouTube signed up with Universal, BMG, Sony, and CBS.
Its coming and its BiG !!!
Friday, November 03, 2006
HBO on IP... !
IPTV surges ahead !
Read this story to know HBO and the likes are moving towards the web ....and rankle the cable industry !
At times, I get a feeling that I have to drop out of school and execute my plans. This is THE TIME. Till 2010, battle will be sorted out. Not that I will wrestle with the biggies..but huge money to be made in the next couple of years in this space !
Read this story to know HBO and the likes are moving towards the web ....and rankle the cable industry !
At times, I get a feeling that I have to drop out of school and execute my plans. This is THE TIME. Till 2010, battle will be sorted out. Not that I will wrestle with the biggies..but huge money to be made in the next couple of years in this space !
SalesForce onsite interview
Yes....finally, made it to final rounds of SalesForce onsite interview !
Onsite interview with a whole day event on Friday, Nov 10th at SFO. So, next weekend is pretty much travelling.
Their growth figures are tremendous and that's what attracts me in this company ! CA is another reason.
Onsite interview with a whole day event on Friday, Nov 10th at SFO. So, next weekend is pretty much travelling.
Their growth figures are tremendous and that's what attracts me in this company ! CA is another reason.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Course: Systems Architecture for Managers
Architects may fight with Managers and vice-versa. For reducing that friction, either of them should know of the other side of the table.
Thus, the course. Hence, I attend it with School of Computer Science and offered by Software Engineering Institute. Faculty instructors are Tony Lattanze and Robert "Bob" Monroe.
Tony is awesome at clarifying concepts and bringing in evolutionary perspective. Also, he engages the class well. I haven't attended Bob much yet and hence, cannot comment. As discussed at the start of this post, this course primarily deals with analyzing, designing, building large and complex inter-disciplinary systems. Heuristics for design principles, guidelines for analysis, engineering systems, etc will be dealt with in this class.
It has been just 2 classes and it has been good so far. They have a demanding future set of tasks w.r.t. 7 out 10 writeups....almost one per class.
Thus, the course. Hence, I attend it with School of Computer Science and offered by Software Engineering Institute. Faculty instructors are Tony Lattanze and Robert "Bob" Monroe.
Tony is awesome at clarifying concepts and bringing in evolutionary perspective. Also, he engages the class well. I haven't attended Bob much yet and hence, cannot comment. As discussed at the start of this post, this course primarily deals with analyzing, designing, building large and complex inter-disciplinary systems. Heuristics for design principles, guidelines for analysis, engineering systems, etc will be dealt with in this class.
It has been just 2 classes and it has been good so far. They have a demanding future set of tasks w.r.t. 7 out 10 writeups....almost one per class.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Career @ Google ?!
Google treats its employees and prospective employees very well is the image. Former may be true but for the later......Au contraire, my readers !
1. When they held an information session on campus (they do that every now and then), someone asked them "career progression" and apparently the team bluffed its answers around it. Either they were ill-prepared or there is no structure in the organization (quite possible...given the fact that the org operates on the basis of CHAOS)
2. They dont reply the students either way. At the entry itself, if this is the condition, then after getting in, ppl said that noone will care much...though the extra stuff shown in the "Google behind the screens" video has been all fluffy and superficial and only to attract talent.
They dont reply for eons and then suddenly one fine day, they will email you ...out of the blue.
Your application gets lost in the CHAOS at Google. Either they dont have their act together or they simply dont care...both of which are detrimental to their image among the talent pool ppl.
On giving this as a feedback to the International Recruiting personnel at Google headquarters in NYC, I was told that Google is aware about this issue and that they are working on it.
Following are suggestions which I make:
1. Every applicant be given an application id which can be tracked.
2. Internally, the applicant must be mapped to someone, who will be solely responsible for communication with the applicant(s).
Companies which do not reply the employees in some definite time period tend to lose interest by talented individuals. Many sharp brains on CMU campus are now aware about this and have chosen to stay away from them. The sexiness of having a Google business card is fading rapidly !
1. When they held an information session on campus (they do that every now and then), someone asked them "career progression" and apparently the team bluffed its answers around it. Either they were ill-prepared or there is no structure in the organization (quite possible...given the fact that the org operates on the basis of CHAOS)
2. They dont reply the students either way. At the entry itself, if this is the condition, then after getting in, ppl said that noone will care much...though the extra stuff shown in the "Google behind the screens" video has been all fluffy and superficial and only to attract talent.
They dont reply for eons and then suddenly one fine day, they will email you ...out of the blue.
Your application gets lost in the CHAOS at Google. Either they dont have their act together or they simply dont care...both of which are detrimental to their image among the talent pool ppl.
On giving this as a feedback to the International Recruiting personnel at Google headquarters in NYC, I was told that Google is aware about this issue and that they are working on it.
Following are suggestions which I make:
1. Every applicant be given an application id which can be tracked.
2. Internally, the applicant must be mapped to someone, who will be solely responsible for communication with the applicant(s).
Companies which do not reply the employees in some definite time period tend to lose interest by talented individuals. Many sharp brains on CMU campus are now aware about this and have chosen to stay away from them. The sexiness of having a Google business card is fading rapidly !
broke
The trials and tribulations of an international student continue....even the fiscal test happened with this now.... My credit cards were maxed out!
I had to take up a Teaching Assistant job. I took it up for the course of Enterprise Architectures. I like the course and let us see how it all pans out.
I had to take up a Teaching Assistant job. I took it up for the course of Enterprise Architectures. I like the course and let us see how it all pans out.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
infosys information session
Instep was being propagandized. I could realise that this was similar to Campus Connect....just different packet name....cos I have handled Campus Connect organization for my alma mater and I know about the whole affair.
First of all, ppl didn't turn up. I think...by now, CMU campus is aware of the actual work that happens in InStep. Also, internship is in India, which is less paying. On an expensive campus such as that of CMU, students look forward to paying internships.
Second, Dismal show....not so engaging conversation !
Third, health services employee from US was present and he was a Tepper alum of 1997 and who joined Infosys in 2000. He used chalk and board to illustrate his example. Meanwhile, the recruiter's ppt got washed out.
First of all, ppl didn't turn up. I think...by now, CMU campus is aware of the actual work that happens in InStep. Also, internship is in India, which is less paying. On an expensive campus such as that of CMU, students look forward to paying internships.
Second, Dismal show....not so engaging conversation !
Third, health services employee from US was present and he was a Tepper alum of 1997 and who joined Infosys in 2000. He used chalk and board to illustrate his example. Meanwhile, the recruiter's ppt got washed out.
of oil, infrastructure
I feel extremely annoyed when I see ppl who are living on the bus routes taking up cars to work. Annoyed because of the fact that we are on the verge of huge oil depletion.
OPEC came out with another announcement that they will be cutting oil production due to increasing inventories and $20 price drop from $78 high of the mid-July time period. I still remember filling up my tank at 3.19. Bush, the obvious adversary to this move by OPEC, has made some strong statements that ...this will "wreck economies and there will be lesser demand for their products" Assuming that Mr Bush has superior information and intelligence at this disposal, one needs to check out what one needs to do.
On one hand, the leader mentions this and on the other hand, the followers in squirrel hill still take up cars for going from 1 stop to the next. Such a shame! Remedies should start right from home and no by bullying others. It may work in some parts of the world but not against OPEC much. OPEC nations are nations which do not have US in their good books. Be it Chavez, be it Saudi, be it Iran....Bush is not in their good books and his statements will give them a distinct saddistic pleasure !
I am not frustrated...I am just annoyed. Bush must try revolutionizing the mindset of ppl if his party comes in power again. This can be done by providing the right infrastructure for that type of growth. US infrastructure for public transport is horrible in general and due to such a high per capita income, there is a high probability of ppl spending more and having customized transport in form of their own car ... rather than using public transport.
Now some thoughts for myself to ponder...before I resign ........Should I be in middle east for the next 2 decades? Will they be relatively insulated to the downturn?
OPEC came out with another announcement that they will be cutting oil production due to increasing inventories and $20 price drop from $78 high of the mid-July time period. I still remember filling up my tank at 3.19. Bush, the obvious adversary to this move by OPEC, has made some strong statements that ...this will "wreck economies and there will be lesser demand for their products" Assuming that Mr Bush has superior information and intelligence at this disposal, one needs to check out what one needs to do.
On one hand, the leader mentions this and on the other hand, the followers in squirrel hill still take up cars for going from 1 stop to the next. Such a shame! Remedies should start right from home and no by bullying others. It may work in some parts of the world but not against OPEC much. OPEC nations are nations which do not have US in their good books. Be it Chavez, be it Saudi, be it Iran....Bush is not in their good books and his statements will give them a distinct saddistic pleasure !
I am not frustrated...I am just annoyed. Bush must try revolutionizing the mindset of ppl if his party comes in power again. This can be done by providing the right infrastructure for that type of growth. US infrastructure for public transport is horrible in general and due to such a high per capita income, there is a high probability of ppl spending more and having customized transport in form of their own car ... rather than using public transport.
Now some thoughts for myself to ponder...before I resign ........Should I be in middle east for the next 2 decades? Will they be relatively insulated to the downturn?
Monday, October 23, 2006
Happy Diwali !
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Network NewYork
At 6:15 am, we report at the University Center in school for boarding the chartered CoachUSA bus for Network NY.
The event is at Google Headquarters. NYC alums will be present at this event and I hope I get to meet a few. Its 2:30 am and I have to get my laundry done so that I can pack my bags and go to sleep for an hour or so.
The event is at Google Headquarters. NYC alums will be present at this event and I hope I get to meet a few. Its 2:30 am and I have to get my laundry done so that I can pack my bags and go to sleep for an hour or so.
Monday, October 16, 2006
...last 3 days of the mini
I am never gonna forget the last 3days of this mini.
5 exams in 2 days: Tuesday and Wednesday. phew...!
Fifty hours later, someone's gonna be a relieved man. ....relieved that it's all over.
Tuesday:
1:30 to 2:50 pm: Decision Making
3:30 to 4:50 pm : IT Project Management
Wednesday:
Morning..sometime : Econ
2-5pm:
6-8pm: Managing Services Org
5 exams in 2 days: Tuesday and Wednesday. phew...!
Fifty hours later, someone's gonna be a relieved man. ....relieved that it's all over.
Tuesday:
1:30 to 2:50 pm: Decision Making
3:30 to 4:50 pm : IT Project Management
Wednesday:
Morning..sometime : Econ
2-5pm:
6-8pm: Managing Services Org
Monday, October 09, 2006
GoogTube
Campus was abuzz today with this news of the all stock acquisition of YouTube. When GoogleIdol happened...I knew this was coming. I wish I could've blogged it.
A Google acquisition of YouTube would underscore what many observers believe about the future. Yes, it's about video. But it's also about a community and about reaching the so-called long tail of production and consumption opportunity on the Web.
Moreover, Google Ad-Sense and Youtube eyeballs will mint money for GoogTube.
However, this will be take-off from Google's philosophy to spend frugally on engineers to get the latest stuff made. The quest for hitting the market has reached so far ! Ppl questioned Hotmail acquisition by Microsoft for $400mn earlier....who will question this ? Will anyone? Does anyone understand what Google is doing to question it....is a question ! :)
A Google acquisition of YouTube would underscore what many observers believe about the future. Yes, it's about video. But it's also about a community and about reaching the so-called long tail of production and consumption opportunity on the Web.
Moreover, Google Ad-Sense and Youtube eyeballs will mint money for GoogTube.
However, this will be take-off from Google's philosophy to spend frugally on engineers to get the latest stuff made. The quest for hitting the market has reached so far ! Ppl questioned Hotmail acquisition by Microsoft for $400mn earlier....who will question this ? Will anyone? Does anyone understand what Google is doing to question it....is a question ! :)
interviews and interviews
Last week, I finished Barclays. I didn't go for Bank of America after reading the review on Vault (the review said that BoFA pays less than the industry standard and the environment is highly political).
The week before that was Salesforce.
This week, I interviewed with Microsoft and this Friday an office hour meeting with Diamond.
Diamond also has a session at noon on Thursday for their Global Outsourcing opportunities.
Letsee how everything turns out.
btw, MS interview ...went well initially ...and then they went on to link lists and stuff. However, it was a code-review and test review. I had lost touch with pointers due to exposure to Java/J2EE....but that's fine....cos at the end he mentioned... that he was just looking at the approach. I hope I get to fly to Seattle !
I am highly excited about the IPTV opportunity with Microsoft...and I look forward to hearing from them in the next 2 weeks.
Keeping my fingers crossed on all of these !
The week before that was Salesforce.
This week, I interviewed with Microsoft and this Friday an office hour meeting with Diamond.
Diamond also has a session at noon on Thursday for their Global Outsourcing opportunities.
Letsee how everything turns out.
btw, MS interview ...went well initially ...and then they went on to link lists and stuff. However, it was a code-review and test review. I had lost touch with pointers due to exposure to Java/J2EE....but that's fine....cos at the end he mentioned... that he was just looking at the approach. I hope I get to fly to Seattle !
I am highly excited about the IPTV opportunity with Microsoft...and I look forward to hearing from them in the next 2 weeks.
Keeping my fingers crossed on all of these !
Salesforce...
That's kindda cool news. I am keeping my fingers crossed because I haven't heard from them back yet.
Salesforce Inc set to boost its Web software market
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Chinese mid-autumn celebrations
The Chinese students' association had mid-autumn festival celebrations yday at the UC (University Center).
Campus was filled with party environment. Heinz community had a potluck party. Ppl had made foodstuffs from their region. For instance, someone from the south had made southern dishes. Someone from South India had made sambar and idlis....some ppl brought in hot-dogs...some ppl brought in beer. ....etc
Also, there was another party for GSA (Graduate Students' ASsociation) at the UC in the Schatz dining room. I met a couple of MISM blokes and then got out of there as there was barely any momentum there.
All in all, there was party environment in the air.
Campus was filled with party environment. Heinz community had a potluck party. Ppl had made foodstuffs from their region. For instance, someone from the south had made southern dishes. Someone from South India had made sambar and idlis....some ppl brought in hot-dogs...some ppl brought in beer. ....etc
Also, there was another party for GSA (Graduate Students' ASsociation) at the UC in the Schatz dining room. I met a couple of MISM blokes and then got out of there as there was barely any momentum there.
All in all, there was party environment in the air.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Bill G
If you'd like to beg Bill directly for a job, his email is billg@microsoft.com. If you'd actually like an answer some day, send your questions to askbill@microsoft.com.
IPTV paper....
My telecom management paper's predictions are kindda in line with the stuff happening around now.
Today, morning, after my Barclays capital interview, when I went to Tepper for the Options class, I picked up the WSJ and discovered this article on Google idol show....media moving online and time shift...blah blah blah...
Well, this is in line with what our paper predicted of happening. Also, the earlier move of iPods having movie releases is in line with the same thing.
I think I will work on the paper more in the next mini and try to get it published or something like that. I must say Telecom Management class was really helpful in getting that perspective.
Moreover, I have also applied for Microsoft's Program Manager position with IPTV in mind. Atleast in preselect interview, I mentioned about it and I got a call for the next round. Letsee how it goes...I have given my availability on Monday for the same. Before that, I have to get most of the assignments out of the way.
Today, morning, after my Barclays capital interview, when I went to Tepper for the Options class, I picked up the WSJ and discovered this article on Google idol show....media moving online and time shift...blah blah blah...
Well, this is in line with what our paper predicted of happening. Also, the earlier move of iPods having movie releases is in line with the same thing.
I think I will work on the paper more in the next mini and try to get it published or something like that. I must say Telecom Management class was really helpful in getting that perspective.
Moreover, I have also applied for Microsoft's Program Manager position with IPTV in mind. Atleast in preselect interview, I mentioned about it and I got a call for the next round. Letsee how it goes...I have given my availability on Monday for the same. Before that, I have to get most of the assignments out of the way.
Monday, September 25, 2006
itSMF USA
I joined itSMF USA recently after attending the session by Jan Vramont. I realised that this forum is a great place for networking along with developing skills in the specific areas of service management. I found their conferences to be highly resourceful.
Managing Services Organization is a great course which is being taught by faculty advisor of CMUSMO Majid Iqbal.The course is unique in terms of the the nature of grading. Team work is highly important because about half of your grades are based on team's workproduct. However, remaining half is for own effort. Bar is set higher and higher based on excellence. We have a forum called Explore ITSM which we have to update with our blogs and forum discussions. This brings critical mass to the blog and also, helps us discuss as if we were discussing on the Blackboard of our course page in the intranet.
I am thinking of joining and leading the CMUSMO work at CMU. CMU SMO is the first Student Special Interest Group (SSIG) to be officially recognized by the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF).
Managing Services Organization is a great course which is being taught by faculty advisor of CMUSMO Majid Iqbal.The course is unique in terms of the the nature of grading. Team work is highly important because about half of your grades are based on team's workproduct. However, remaining half is for own effort. Bar is set higher and higher based on excellence. We have a forum called Explore ITSM which we have to update with our blogs and forum discussions. This brings critical mass to the blog and also, helps us discuss as if we were discussing on the Blackboard of our course page in the intranet.
I am thinking of joining and leading the CMUSMO work at CMU. CMU SMO is the first Student Special Interest Group (SSIG) to be officially recognized by the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF).
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Sessions on Crack the case interview - David Ohrvall
David Ohrvall, author of the book "Crack the case interview", had come to campus for 2 sessions and a few workshops. Workshop fees were $20 but I think it was worth it...based on whatever he taught us.
Amazing techniques he showed us...which to an extent we knew...but were not actively using.
Most importantly, he made us realise with a scoring technique that we need to "drill"....
So, drill baby drill will be my theme for the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, my application status is not that cool...need to work hard towards that.
Amazing techniques he showed us...which to an extent we knew...but were not actively using.
Most importantly, he made us realise with a scoring technique that we need to "drill"....
So, drill baby drill will be my theme for the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, my application status is not that cool...need to work hard towards that.
Consulting firms on campus ... McKinsey, Deloitte, etc
McKinsey came in for the APD positions for BTO and Deloitte came in for their Technology Integration division's information sessions targeted towards MISM program.
Absolutely delightful time !
Alums had come in for the session with McK and interns discussed their experience during the Delloite session.
Got to know quite a few things during both the information sessions.
Now, the count down has begun..because both the applications are fairly complex and need to be done strategically!
Absolutely delightful time !
Alums had come in for the session with McK and interns discussed their experience during the Delloite session.
Got to know quite a few things during both the information sessions.
Now, the count down has begun..because both the applications are fairly complex and need to be done strategically!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
wasteful mock interview
In the morning, I got up early in order to attend the Citigroup breakfast session and the mock interview thereafter. Right now, I am waiting for my Options class to begin. Tonight is going to be a testing night...primarily due to assignments due tomorrow and also the follow up on the recruiters....along with some weekend events such as the McKinsey breakfast!
At the Citi session for MISM students (Technology Associate position), Kos...one of their MDs had come in and he emphasized how technology helped him while on the trading floor. Also, Citi being the drivers and pioneers...they understand the strategic importance of IT for their business. Fortunately, I could meet Chandra there. He was glad to take a break from his usual days (I think so).
Later, at about 9 am, I left the session to go down to the Career Center for the mock interview with Raytheon. I selected this firm with an intention of having a mock interview which drills me on Project management and stuff like that. However, I got to know 100% of their projects are "classified". Damn !
At the Citi session for MISM students (Technology Associate position), Kos...one of their MDs had come in and he emphasized how technology helped him while on the trading floor. Also, Citi being the drivers and pioneers...they understand the strategic importance of IT for their business. Fortunately, I could meet Chandra there. He was glad to take a break from his usual days (I think so).
Later, at about 9 am, I left the session to go down to the Career Center for the mock interview with Raytheon. I selected this firm with an intention of having a mock interview which drills me on Project management and stuff like that. However, I got to know 100% of their projects are "classified". Damn !
cross cultural sensitivities
For the course of International business management, I prepared a presentation along with a skit...and presented it to the whole class. It was well appreciated because it was more engaging and we tried to incorporate as much in it as we can.
Later, with presentations from others...we received knowledge about doing business with
Bob Dalton is awesome...w.r.t. directing the discussions and getting some of the most imp issues up....while conducting the class.
btw, I got to know a new thing..... DaLady's boyfriend is/was Indian. This came out during one of the points in the presentation!
Later, with presentations from others...we received knowledge about doing business with
- Kosovons
- Germans
- Egyptians
- Iranians
- Koreans
- Chinese
- Greeks
- Americans (duh!)...especially sensitivities associated with African Americans
- etc etc
Bob Dalton is awesome...w.r.t. directing the discussions and getting some of the most imp issues up....while conducting the class.
btw, I got to know a new thing..... DaLady's boyfriend is/was Indian. This came out during one of the points in the presentation!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Recruiters ahoy !
Wow - last 2 days have been absolutely fan_damn_tastic !
Started off with Google on Monday evening... Thereafter, Yahoo, UBS ..blah...blah...blah....
Today, TOC was the event.... I pushed myself beyond physical limits. Microsoft initial screening interview went well (spice rack for blind ppl) ! After that, so many other recruiters that I have lost track.
Right now, I have to focus on BOC tomorrow and SalesForce interview at 11:30 am tom morning.
signing off right now and will be back soon.
Started off with Google on Monday evening... Thereafter, Yahoo, UBS ..blah...blah...blah....
Today, TOC was the event.... I pushed myself beyond physical limits. Microsoft initial screening interview went well (spice rack for blind ppl) ! After that, so many other recruiters that I have lost track.
Right now, I have to focus on BOC tomorrow and SalesForce interview at 11:30 am tom morning.
signing off right now and will be back soon.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Tech Sunday !
Before the D-day, we have a Sunday full of sessions... !
It started with an engaging talk with John P who gave a brief perspective of how ages have evolved. Currently, it is the Age of Individual in which ppl want to reinvent themselves. Age of new economy preceeded it and age of diversity preceeded even before it with boomers. Abilities, Interests intersect to form an avocation. Interests, Markets intersect to make a Dream. Abilities and Markets make a job. The AIM is to get the Target which lies at the intersection of Abilities, Interests, and Markets!
Now, that's insightful!
AdvanceMe Associates lady mentioned about how to make the best first impression. The Berkin Stocks case she mentioned about the guy wearing blue shirt and dressing conservatively dressing causing him to lose the job made me think about the employers I plan to apply to.
boy, I gotta get a new wardrobe. Also, Bee aint gonna help me with that :( So, it's all me ... to go and shop for my wardrobe and accessories.
In the last session, Jerome Laday, Director of HR-L'Oreal, mentioned about mentioning experiences in the format of STAR:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Ernst & Young's national recruiter Wendy Wildt guided me for doing an internship after graduation if I want to do a career switch! She was really nice in listening at the pain I had at my previous employer.
"Territorial" was the word she used for describing some top ppl in an organization who do not let employees go. Deepak Padaki, our Engagement Manager at Infosys was one such fellow. His justification was that if I have invested in you for couple of years training you to become a Telecom consultant then why should I allow your transfer to some other vertical? My rationale was ..I was in AT&T account - but I was doing Real Estate....not Telecom ! Also, my skills will be far more relevant for BCMD (Banking and Capital Markets) vertical of Infosys than CSPD (communications service providers), duh !
An interesting question was put by a student about citizenship being a hurdle with some recruiters (such as Accenture). We had a senior manager from Accenture, Christopher Pesci. He addressed this question saying that in the past he had referred an Indian to Mumbai manager friend of his because Accenture does not sponsor H1 B visas.
I was shocked to know the hiring practices these companies will have in order to get talent cheap. I call this practice itself as being "cheap." They are not truly globalizing and applying Prof Dalton's principles from International Business Management course, unless Accenture becomes truly global they will still be qualified as "MNC." Extending Thomas Friedman's logic from "The World is Flat" this company will have trouble in Globalization 2.0 itself.
That's interesting. Finally CMU's associate Dean cautioned the CMU students to be modest but brag at the same time....now, that's ironical!
It started with an engaging talk with John P who gave a brief perspective of how ages have evolved. Currently, it is the Age of Individual in which ppl want to reinvent themselves. Age of new economy preceeded it and age of diversity preceeded even before it with boomers. Abilities, Interests intersect to form an avocation. Interests, Markets intersect to make a Dream. Abilities and Markets make a job. The AIM is to get the Target which lies at the intersection of Abilities, Interests, and Markets!
Now, that's insightful!
AdvanceMe Associates lady mentioned about how to make the best first impression. The Berkin Stocks case she mentioned about the guy wearing blue shirt and dressing conservatively dressing causing him to lose the job made me think about the employers I plan to apply to.
boy, I gotta get a new wardrobe. Also, Bee aint gonna help me with that :( So, it's all me ... to go and shop for my wardrobe and accessories.
In the last session, Jerome Laday, Director of HR-L'Oreal, mentioned about mentioning experiences in the format of STAR:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Ernst & Young's national recruiter Wendy Wildt guided me for doing an internship after graduation if I want to do a career switch! She was really nice in listening at the pain I had at my previous employer.
"Territorial" was the word she used for describing some top ppl in an organization who do not let employees go. Deepak Padaki, our Engagement Manager at Infosys was one such fellow. His justification was that if I have invested in you for couple of years training you to become a Telecom consultant then why should I allow your transfer to some other vertical? My rationale was ..I was in AT&T account - but I was doing Real Estate....not Telecom ! Also, my skills will be far more relevant for BCMD (Banking and Capital Markets) vertical of Infosys than CSPD (communications service providers), duh !
An interesting question was put by a student about citizenship being a hurdle with some recruiters (such as Accenture). We had a senior manager from Accenture, Christopher Pesci. He addressed this question saying that in the past he had referred an Indian to Mumbai manager friend of his because Accenture does not sponsor H1 B visas.
I was shocked to know the hiring practices these companies will have in order to get talent cheap. I call this practice itself as being "cheap." They are not truly globalizing and applying Prof Dalton's principles from International Business Management course, unless Accenture becomes truly global they will still be qualified as "MNC." Extending Thomas Friedman's logic from "The World is Flat" this company will have trouble in Globalization 2.0 itself.
That's interesting. Finally CMU's associate Dean cautioned the CMU students to be modest but brag at the same time....now, that's ironical!
Course: Options - getting pennies in front of a steam roller
"Getting pennies in front of steam-rollers"
I will never forget that expression from our Options faculty(Prof. Duanne Seppi) while referring to arbitrage activities. The prime reason being the hype around this job. There is a huge halo created around IB jobs and when I heard about it from the undergrad alums of CMU business administration group, I didn't like it at all. May be the real excitement is later.
btw, these pennies were sizeable chunks earlier in this century when FnO market had just started in India and high school passouts turned jobbers were transformed to arbitrageurs who made disporportionate income from the whole deal. With the advent of other players in the market, there are barely any opportunities left in the markets.
Professor had one more quote on modelling. At the outset of the first class, he mentioned that I am going to teach you all the wrong models !
Whoa ! You should've seen the look on everyone's faces.
He added after a pause that - however, I am going to teach you how to be an informed consumer of options for your investments and how to choose the best wrong model (what an oxymoron!)
All models are wrong because they make various assumptions and their application is based on environment variables. Hence, Ito Markov may be the best wrong model in one case and the GBM may be in some other.
btw, last class, he gave us a simulation excercise and said "Happy simulating weekend!"
I will never forget that expression from our Options faculty(Prof. Duanne Seppi) while referring to arbitrage activities. The prime reason being the hype around this job. There is a huge halo created around IB jobs and when I heard about it from the undergrad alums of CMU business administration group, I didn't like it at all. May be the real excitement is later.
btw, these pennies were sizeable chunks earlier in this century when FnO market had just started in India and high school passouts turned jobbers were transformed to arbitrageurs who made disporportionate income from the whole deal. With the advent of other players in the market, there are barely any opportunities left in the markets.
Professor had one more quote on modelling. At the outset of the first class, he mentioned that I am going to teach you all the wrong models !
Whoa ! You should've seen the look on everyone's faces.
He added after a pause that - however, I am going to teach you how to be an informed consumer of options for your investments and how to choose the best wrong model (what an oxymoron!)
All models are wrong because they make various assumptions and their application is based on environment variables. Hence, Ito Markov may be the best wrong model in one case and the GBM may be in some other.
btw, last class, he gave us a simulation excercise and said "Happy simulating weekend!"
"IT Analyst"
In the TartanTrak (MonsterTrak's CMU version), I saw a job title called "IT Analyst" by Citigroup. Most of my friends who came from India to US for their Masters without any work-ex were getting this job and hence, when I saw them in the TartanTrak, I was wondering if these are for Graduate level.
However, I read the following description and I was shocked:
The IT Analyst program is an initiative to hire full-time undergraduates specializing in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, and Computer Engineering to work on technology initiatives that support the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) businesses. During the program, IT analysts can capitalize on their programming, engineering and problem-solving abilities in a state-of-the-art technological environment. The 2-year program is designed to enhance the skills and performance of staff members recruited from college campuses. The program includes a training curriculum that focuses on the development of personal skills and business knowledge. The training enhances the performance of the analysts in their day-to-day business assignments and encourages participants to understand and support the strategic direction of the firm.
Shocked that....these ppl accepted an analyst position..well, but as students of Indian origin and without any US experience or without any experience at all, they barely have any bargaining power.
However, I read the following description and I was shocked:
The IT Analyst program is an initiative to hire full-time undergraduates specializing in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, and Computer Engineering to work on technology initiatives that support the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) businesses. During the program, IT analysts can capitalize on their programming, engineering and problem-solving abilities in a state-of-the-art technological environment. The 2-year program is designed to enhance the skills and performance of staff members recruited from college campuses. The program includes a training curriculum that focuses on the development of personal skills and business knowledge. The training enhances the performance of the analysts in their day-to-day business assignments and encourages participants to understand and support the strategic direction of the firm.
Shocked that....these ppl accepted an analyst position..well, but as students of Indian origin and without any US experience or without any experience at all, they barely have any bargaining power.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
One more blog
...Someone may call it blog-o-mania....but yeah..I have another blog for a course titled Managing Service Organizations that I have taken this mini.
I was tired of maintaining 3 blogs. However, it is a part of our curriculum.
Can you beat that ?
I will be adding a link to this blog in my links section shortly. Meanwhile, the URL is: http://www.exploreitsm.org/?q=blog/42
I was tired of maintaining 3 blogs. However, it is a part of our curriculum.
Can you beat that ?
I will be adding a link to this blog in my links section shortly. Meanwhile, the URL is: http://www.exploreitsm.org/?q=blog/42
The future is apple (contd)
Sometime back, I had posted a log by the title "The future is Apple!"
In line with the same argument, I want to update my visitors with this piece of news.
Domination - but - only of the multimedia segment! With movies on iPods and iTV as the next big thing along with IPTV, Apple will compete with other players such as 2wire who have got big business for their STBs (Set top boxes). IPTV is going to be a big business and Apple will ensure that under the leadership of Steve Jobs, they get a good chunk of it.
So, here's a thing - Jobs is not an original guy but has the ability to see the markets well and execute a project to the finish and sell his product. Gates beat him at that but Gates is out of the game now. I hope Jobs will be able to at least get over Ozzie...if not, then that's sheer lack of competence . However, I do not want to sound as if I am writing him off completely. He still remains a legend in this industry for reasons such as the flair he possesses, the effect he creates, etc.
Letsee what next he brings in.
In line with the same argument, I want to update my visitors with this piece of news.
Domination - but - only of the multimedia segment! With movies on iPods and iTV as the next big thing along with IPTV, Apple will compete with other players such as 2wire who have got big business for their STBs (Set top boxes). IPTV is going to be a big business and Apple will ensure that under the leadership of Steve Jobs, they get a good chunk of it.
So, here's a thing - Jobs is not an original guy but has the ability to see the markets well and execute a project to the finish and sell his product. Gates beat him at that but Gates is out of the game now. I hope Jobs will be able to at least get over Ozzie...if not, then that's sheer lack of competence . However, I do not want to sound as if I am writing him off completely. He still remains a legend in this industry for reasons such as the flair he possesses, the effect he creates, etc.
Letsee what next he brings in.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Biggest manipulator
Duanne Seppi, our professor for Options at Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business) , mentioned and it struck me.... There is a wealthy investor in the market - having 100s of billions of $s and manipulates markets - the government ! This was in reference to the interest rates being set by the government.
Nice one !
Nice one !
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Lalu to teach management at IIM-A
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/30iim1.htm
To be politically appropriate - I will not comment on this !
Lalu has silenced his critics with his actions :)
btw, IIM A is the most prestigious institute in India.
To be politically appropriate - I will not comment on this !
Lalu has silenced his critics with his actions :)
btw, IIM A is the most prestigious institute in India.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Course: International Business Management
Prof Robert Dalton has been awesome in his first two classes. He was ex-chief economist at Gulf Oil. Gulf Oil was taken over by Chevron in 1984 for several billion $s. Bob later on took on administration at CMU for Exec Ed and in 1991, CMU's exec ed was ranked #1 in the world.
In the first class, he took a case (he like war analogies for strategies) from 1346 when the English forces kicked French butt though they were at a severe disadvantage in terms of numbers. Later, after 10 years, English kicked French butt again. Finally, after 50 years, again French were defeated by the English. The whole saga was good since the excercises we did in class and which revolved around it gave us a different perspective of how history repeats itself.
Finally, he explained us the difference between an indigenous company serving indigenous markets, an exporter, an MNC, and a Global company. This helped me slightly while working on the three cases for yday's class.
He made a nice selection of 3 cases:
1. Philips v/s Matsushita: Philips was highly decentralized and Matsushita(Panasonic and National are the some of the brandnames from their flagship) was highly centralized. Both trying to become a global company. They have been most successful companies in the electronics arena in the 2oth century. Fairly complicated case !
2. Club Med: A services firm facing issues in light of global business.
3. BRLHardy Wines: A wine related company facing conflict during their growth face due to the its key personnel fighting it out for their own sake. This had partially fashion scenario.
The matrix provide by Bob is awesome - for most of the analysis. Each box refers to a different approach to be used for strategies. Each box has its own set of dos and donts.
In between, he was telling us stories about:
1. How a CEO, VP, etc of Gulf Oil had issues in starting the OHProjector !
2. How he and his wife had issues with French lodging where most of the stuff lined up was ultra-modern
3. How one of his super-rich friends served a chilled cheap 2-buck-a-chuck wine to his guests and they didn't realise it since it was cold and numbed their sensation.
He keeps on telling these funny anecdotes and reminds me of one of my mentors !
All in all, it was a great class.
I shall make a presentation on dos and donts in Indian business for his class.
He ended with a beautiful note:
in academic economics ceteris paribus is true .....but....
in business economics mutatis mutandis is true !
In the first class, he took a case (he like war analogies for strategies) from 1346 when the English forces kicked French butt though they were at a severe disadvantage in terms of numbers. Later, after 10 years, English kicked French butt again. Finally, after 50 years, again French were defeated by the English. The whole saga was good since the excercises we did in class and which revolved around it gave us a different perspective of how history repeats itself.
Finally, he explained us the difference between an indigenous company serving indigenous markets, an exporter, an MNC, and a Global company. This helped me slightly while working on the three cases for yday's class.
He made a nice selection of 3 cases:
1. Philips v/s Matsushita: Philips was highly decentralized and Matsushita(Panasonic and National are the some of the brandnames from their flagship) was highly centralized. Both trying to become a global company. They have been most successful companies in the electronics arena in the 2oth century. Fairly complicated case !
2. Club Med: A services firm facing issues in light of global business.
3. BRLHardy Wines: A wine related company facing conflict during their growth face due to the its key personnel fighting it out for their own sake. This had partially fashion scenario.
The matrix provide by Bob is awesome - for most of the analysis. Each box refers to a different approach to be used for strategies. Each box has its own set of dos and donts.
In between, he was telling us stories about:
1. How a CEO, VP, etc of Gulf Oil had issues in starting the OHProjector !
2. How he and his wife had issues with French lodging where most of the stuff lined up was ultra-modern
3. How one of his super-rich friends served a chilled cheap 2-buck-a-chuck wine to his guests and they didn't realise it since it was cold and numbed their sensation.
He keeps on telling these funny anecdotes and reminds me of one of my mentors !
All in all, it was a great class.
I shall make a presentation on dos and donts in Indian business for his class.
He ended with a beautiful note:
in academic economics ceteris paribus is true .....but....
in business economics mutatis mutandis is true !
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Courses
Finally, I have made up my mind and the course list for this mini looks like this:
1. Economic Analysis
2. Options
3. Decision Making under Uncertainity
4. International Business Management (awesome prof....chief economist at Gulf Oil)
5. Managing Service Org (I am planning to focus on Service Mgmt concentration and this is a pre-req for all the courses in next sem)
6. IT Project Management: I sought exemption from this but I was not given - similar to Stats case.
7. OOAD - I am thinking of dropping this.
Elementary Chinese (I will be able to talk to more than half the population of this world with knowledge of Hindi, Chinese, and English)
1. Economic Analysis
2. Options
3. Decision Making under Uncertainity
4. International Business Management (awesome prof....chief economist at Gulf Oil)
5. Managing Service Org (I am planning to focus on Service Mgmt concentration and this is a pre-req for all the courses in next sem)
6. IT Project Management: I sought exemption from this but I was not given - similar to Stats case.
7. OOAD - I am thinking of dropping this.
Elementary Chinese (I will be able to talk to more than half the population of this world with knowledge of Hindi, Chinese, and English)
Friday, September 01, 2006
Full-view downloadable pdfs - by Google books!
Google books has been around ....However, you have to check out this ground-shaking news
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
highly recommended read(or listen?)
I highly recommend reading this article to anyone interested in effective public speaking. To be a leader, talk like one focuses on 5 main points which are really good.
w.r.t. presentations, I love the way Steve Jobs and his team make it - those are awesome - simple yet effective and impactful. A lot to learn from his speeches.
w.r.t. presentations, I love the way Steve Jobs and his team make it - those are awesome - simple yet effective and impactful. A lot to learn from his speeches.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Looted!
Yes, I feel swindled!
I saw the price of the Macbook and its lesser than my Thinkpad. I was forced to buy this high-end Thinkpad when other Thinkpad's were cheaper. The T60 Thinkpad from IBM.
Moreover, IBM hasn't yet recalled its batteries. Wait till there is an explosion in the battery and when somebody sues them.
More than IBM, I am upset with the Heinz school's admission staff who forced me into this. I didn't want to buy this notebook and since I was going to put in 2k anyways, I always wanted to buy a Macbook.
Now, since I have put in 2100 bucks in this, I will have to keep this piece of junk with me for 3 years....what a shame!
I saw the price of the Macbook and its lesser than my Thinkpad. I was forced to buy this high-end Thinkpad when other Thinkpad's were cheaper. The T60 Thinkpad from IBM.
Moreover, IBM hasn't yet recalled its batteries. Wait till there is an explosion in the battery and when somebody sues them.
More than IBM, I am upset with the Heinz school's admission staff who forced me into this. I didn't want to buy this notebook and since I was going to put in 2k anyways, I always wanted to buy a Macbook.
Now, since I have put in 2100 bucks in this, I will have to keep this piece of junk with me for 3 years....what a shame!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Thank you - visitors
My metrics for the blog show me fan-club throughout the world and I am glad to see that.
I want to thank you all for the same.
Except for Africa and Antartica, everyone other continent has a representation. Check out the picture below for a visual picture of the visitors to this blog.
Once again, thank you everyone!
I want to thank you all for the same.
Except for Africa and Antartica, everyone other continent has a representation. Check out the picture below for a visual picture of the visitors to this blog.
Once again, thank you everyone!
P2P copyright infringers: Beware
Check out this link to see the court ruling in Amsterdam for P2p filesharing. Interesting part is the last part of the article which makes it mandatory for the copyright owner to prove beyond reasonable doubt!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Big Blue on the move...
IBMs latest acquisition of Internet Security Systems Inc. has sent some signals in the market. Here's the news.
By far...largest in this domain, this acquisition shows how deep pockets can help bring consolidation. IBM is now hoping that being big will help ISS too. What if its assets become less useful due to the acquisition and the merger with IBM? What I mean is ...what if the employees leave due to dislike to the Big Blue's culture and loss of identity?
IBM is big and fat and many times, acquisitions do not unlock the value due to cultural differences in the companies. IBM will do the same set of activities to ISS as it did to Lotus Notes. Try to integrate its products with its own product range. Was that a success.... your guess is as good as mine.
IBM also bought MRO software and Filenet in recent past. Is IBM good at acquisitions?
Let us see what IBM buys next and what will the rivals do....any guesses ?
By far...largest in this domain, this acquisition shows how deep pockets can help bring consolidation. IBM is now hoping that being big will help ISS too. What if its assets become less useful due to the acquisition and the merger with IBM? What I mean is ...what if the employees leave due to dislike to the Big Blue's culture and loss of identity?
IBM is big and fat and many times, acquisitions do not unlock the value due to cultural differences in the companies. IBM will do the same set of activities to ISS as it did to Lotus Notes. Try to integrate its products with its own product range. Was that a success.... your guess is as good as mine.
IBM also bought MRO software and Filenet in recent past. Is IBM good at acquisitions?
Let us see what IBM buys next and what will the rivals do....any guesses ?
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The future is Apple !
Apple - not as in the dominant position ...but as a multimedia firm. They are going to be this ubiquitous player.
Jobs learnt his share of lessons after he was fired from Apple as their CEO. He bailed them out when he returned almost after 12 years.
Primary goal for ppl to switch from PC to Apple based systems will be its differentiation factors to force ppl to bear the switching costs.
Apple will try to reduce the switching costs by:
Making hardware Intel-based !
If you can't beat'em then join'em. Apple realised that very well.
Check out this presentation in World Wide Developer Conference in which Jobs and Schiller emphasize on Intel processors.
Making OS switchable !
So, while you can keep your Windows with you for the games and other applications. All you have to do is buy their OS + hardware. Apple calls this initiative as Bootcamp.
While all this is going on, Bill leaves the boat (to step back?) and gives Ray Ozzie and Steve Balmer the charge.
Apple will woo the public by:
Multimedia applications
iPod user base is huge. Adoption of iPod has given a foot in the door to Apple in the low-end market segment. Also, it has tested the waters by knowing that ppl will pay a 100-200$ extra for owning their products but not very large gaps (as was case with Macintoshes before).
Main point is that the proprietary nature of iTunes makes it easier to be manipulatable on MacOSs since they will have those type of applications.
This is one of the reasons why Microsoft decided to launch its own portable multimedia product. They will not copy the concept of iPod. However, they will provide the same set of features which Apple will try to provide.
Essentially, Jobs has seen a new market in multimedia and he is making every effort to have the knife fall in his favor this time. That will ensure that any competitor will find it heavy to go against Apple in that segment at least.
Sleek product designs
This will continue to remain their forte.
Jobs learnt his share of lessons after he was fired from Apple as their CEO. He bailed them out when he returned almost after 12 years.
Primary goal for ppl to switch from PC to Apple based systems will be its differentiation factors to force ppl to bear the switching costs.
Apple will try to reduce the switching costs by:
Making hardware Intel-based !
If you can't beat'em then join'em. Apple realised that very well.
Check out this presentation in World Wide Developer Conference in which Jobs and Schiller emphasize on Intel processors.
Making OS switchable !
So, while you can keep your Windows with you for the games and other applications. All you have to do is buy their OS + hardware. Apple calls this initiative as Bootcamp.
While all this is going on, Bill leaves the boat (to step back?) and gives Ray Ozzie and Steve Balmer the charge.
Apple will woo the public by:
Multimedia applications
iPod user base is huge. Adoption of iPod has given a foot in the door to Apple in the low-end market segment. Also, it has tested the waters by knowing that ppl will pay a 100-200$ extra for owning their products but not very large gaps (as was case with Macintoshes before).
Main point is that the proprietary nature of iTunes makes it easier to be manipulatable on MacOSs since they will have those type of applications.
This is one of the reasons why Microsoft decided to launch its own portable multimedia product. They will not copy the concept of iPod. However, they will provide the same set of features which Apple will try to provide.
Essentially, Jobs has seen a new market in multimedia and he is making every effort to have the knife fall in his favor this time. That will ensure that any competitor will find it heavy to go against Apple in that segment at least.
Sleek product designs
This will continue to remain their forte.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Technology is a girl's best friend.. !
Reuters Technology EOB report surprised me with this article. At first, I didn't believe what I read in the abstract of the article and discounted it as being one of the headline-gimmicks.
However, on reading the article I find out that: Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend. Girls gone Wired survey has some good news and some bad news !
Good news since buying a 2+carat rock for your honey wouldn't be essential anymore(if she belongs to this breed of ladies).
Bad news for those who have already bought it and their darlings are now asking for the techno-stuff.
btw, 46% women doing their own computer trouble-shooting - is that true or what ? I am not trying to be condescending here - but this was not what I practically saw - at least at my previous workplace. At my current place, I am doing my Masters in a tech-field and hence, those ladies cannot be considered as a representative set (since they are techies anyways).
However, on reading the article I find out that: Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend. Girls gone Wired survey has some good news and some bad news !
Good news since buying a 2+carat rock for your honey wouldn't be essential anymore(if she belongs to this breed of ladies).
Bad news for those who have already bought it and their darlings are now asking for the techno-stuff.
btw, 46% women doing their own computer trouble-shooting - is that true or what ? I am not trying to be condescending here - but this was not what I practically saw - at least at my previous workplace. At my current place, I am doing my Masters in a tech-field and hence, those ladies cannot be considered as a representative set (since they are techies anyways).
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Campus: University Center
Starting today, I am going to post some campus pictures along with my experiences at the same.
Today we shall discuss the University Center !
Outside the university center there is this weird post(left) - which was an idea someone in the management bought ! Steep path of success - I need to go ahead and take a campus tour in order to understand the theory behind this post.
Outside the university center there is this weird post(left) - which was an idea someone in the management bought ! Steep path of success - I need to go ahead and take a campus tour in order to understand the theory behind this post.
exercise (gym, yoga center, swimming, etc), food (!- Indian food - Taste of India is located here 4.75 bucks - 3 entrees and rice and a bread leaf),- books - only in case of urgency (bookstore),
- coffee and snacks (Entropy)
- Police
- banking (PNC Bank has an office here along with the ATM)
basketball
We would turn towards directions
Then, later, on the back side which is the portion between UC and Tepper - tennis courts!
Inside UC - we have this huge open area which is the round part of the first picture -
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Google gets maps to your cellphones !
This is a news expected since a while - ppl would pay for it too !
Sharp and suave !
They first created a market for online maps and increased ppl's dependency by giving Google maps on non-mobile platforms for free and now selling the live maps on mobile .
Need to ask Dr. J. Lamar Strategy professor) about this. They didn't pay-to-play on this one. Google is creating new ways in the game of strategy. Of course, it creates value and then extracts it - which is the basic principle for any Strategy - however, there are some other strategies it is adopting which is changing the way technology strategists would have to think.
Sharp and suave !
They first created a market for online maps and increased ppl's dependency by giving Google maps on non-mobile platforms for free and now selling the live maps on mobile .
Need to ask Dr. J. Lamar Strategy professor) about this. They didn't pay-to-play on this one. Google is creating new ways in the game of strategy. Of course, it creates value and then extracts it - which is the basic principle for any Strategy - however, there are some other strategies it is adopting which is changing the way technology strategists would have to think.
Monday, July 17, 2006
...projects !
Well, weekend was packed with projects and extra lecture.
Telecom Management had one lecture short due to the Memorial day holiday - it was compensated by Sat evening lecture from 4:30 pm to 8 pm. Crazy, but true !
Earlier in the day, we were working towards the Telecom Management group term paper - IPTV.
Later, till 9 pm we were busy with the same - so Saturday was pretty much about Telecom Management.
Sunday - I woke up - not so fresh and got ready for the Strategic Corporate Mangement's group project meeting. We have chosen the topic of "Should Infosys be a dominant player in China and how ? (organically or inorganically - buying companies like Neusoft of Hisoft can give them huge advantage and step in the Korean and Japanese markets). We have provided a few alternative topics to the professor just in case he does not like this topic as much interesting. Mellon financial's strategy, Mobile gaming strategy for European service providers, and Google's China strategy are the alternatives we have provided.
Post lunch, at around 2:30 pm we had another back to back meeting for Sourcing IT systems with case study's Risk assessment and Feasibility analysis for FBI's VCF (Virtual Case File) study. It was interesting to see how such a largely touted investigation organization can have such miserable project management and IT infrastructure. 9/11 caught them off-guard and they were badly hit !
Anyways, overall, an eventful week.
Telecom Management had one lecture short due to the Memorial day holiday - it was compensated by Sat evening lecture from 4:30 pm to 8 pm. Crazy, but true !
Earlier in the day, we were working towards the Telecom Management group term paper - IPTV.
Later, till 9 pm we were busy with the same - so Saturday was pretty much about Telecom Management.
Sunday - I woke up - not so fresh and got ready for the Strategic Corporate Mangement's group project meeting. We have chosen the topic of "Should Infosys be a dominant player in China and how ? (organically or inorganically - buying companies like Neusoft of Hisoft can give them huge advantage and step in the Korean and Japanese markets). We have provided a few alternative topics to the professor just in case he does not like this topic as much interesting. Mellon financial's strategy, Mobile gaming strategy for European service providers, and Google's China strategy are the alternatives we have provided.
Post lunch, at around 2:30 pm we had another back to back meeting for Sourcing IT systems with case study's Risk assessment and Feasibility analysis for FBI's VCF (Virtual Case File) study. It was interesting to see how such a largely touted investigation organization can have such miserable project management and IT infrastructure. 9/11 caught them off-guard and they were badly hit !
Anyways, overall, an eventful week.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Writing and speaking
Professional Writing for managers
Professional Speaking for managers
Well, when I joined these courses - I thought that my course load would be relatively lighter this mini. Guess what? - I was wrong !
I took this as an opportunity to get back to a passion I developed last year - writing.
Last year, I read GMAT material to develop my command for writing. In the process, I read books such as Grouchy Grammarian. I opened my box of books and found couple of other books - they were partially read at that time - The dictionary of Concise writing and Between You and I.
Both are books I need to finish by last week of this month. Also, there are 3 projects to be finished - Telecom management project (IPTV), Strategic Corporate Management project, and Sourcing Systems project.
btw, writing classes are wonderful due to the way Prof Ed Barr has designed it. Today, he gave us a highly convoluted piece of notice someone had put up from Italy - it was supposed to be an invitation for students. However, it was so complicated that anyone reading it would run away than attend it. Anyways, me and Nomita worked on it - to make it simple-yet-effective.
Also, he has given a fairly challenging assignment - that of writing a layoff notice to an employee and media release piece. Meanwhile, one assignment is due tonight and one is due Tuesday night and this layoff assignment is due on next Thursday night - quite a demanding course !
Speaking class discussed about Job interviews - yeah and we could clarify some doubts - next class- we have practicals for the same since we would be having mock-interviews. I have to inform the TA about which company and what profile I would like to be interviewed about.
This mini is not as relaxing as I thought it would have been...well, I gotta run - another class in 30 mins.
Professional Speaking for managers
Well, when I joined these courses - I thought that my course load would be relatively lighter this mini. Guess what? - I was wrong !
I took this as an opportunity to get back to a passion I developed last year - writing.
Last year, I read GMAT material to develop my command for writing. In the process, I read books such as Grouchy Grammarian. I opened my box of books and found couple of other books - they were partially read at that time - The dictionary of Concise writing and Between You and I.
Both are books I need to finish by last week of this month. Also, there are 3 projects to be finished - Telecom management project (IPTV), Strategic Corporate Management project, and Sourcing Systems project.
btw, writing classes are wonderful due to the way Prof Ed Barr has designed it. Today, he gave us a highly convoluted piece of notice someone had put up from Italy - it was supposed to be an invitation for students. However, it was so complicated that anyone reading it would run away than attend it. Anyways, me and Nomita worked on it - to make it simple-yet-effective.
Also, he has given a fairly challenging assignment - that of writing a layoff notice to an employee and media release piece. Meanwhile, one assignment is due tonight and one is due Tuesday night and this layoff assignment is due on next Thursday night - quite a demanding course !
Speaking class discussed about Job interviews - yeah and we could clarify some doubts - next class- we have practicals for the same since we would be having mock-interviews. I have to inform the TA about which company and what profile I would like to be interviewed about.
This mini is not as relaxing as I thought it would have been...well, I gotta run - another class in 30 mins.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Saturday plans
Planning to go to here on Saturday with the Telecom Management study-group !
The study group concept is real cool - Valerie had made great flash cards - which helped a lot for a structured and systematic revision. That way, I also got to know about Service Management details and I am back on track....
The study group concept is real cool - Valerie had made great flash cards - which helped a lot for a structured and systematic revision. That way, I also got to know about Service Management details and I am back on track....
Monday, July 10, 2006
Wine club
Saw this club at Tepper - wine club.
They've listed a few resources:
Seems interesting - but I dont see much activity happening there. May be it is due to the summer factor. Letsee how it goes - if in fall, it is back in action - I shall join it !
Can ask Ernie and Andy about it - they are the co-presidents for the club.
They've listed a few resources:
Check out some of our favorite links:
- Wine Lovers Page: Everything you need to know about wine.
- Wine Spectator: The definitive wine magazine.
- Wine & Spirits: A club favorite.
Seems interesting - but I dont see much activity happening there. May be it is due to the summer factor. Letsee how it goes - if in fall, it is back in action - I shall join it !
Can ask Ernie and Andy about it - they are the co-presidents for the club.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Belated bday party !
Last evening - devoid of all the tensions of Telecom Management course's midterm - we had a party - o boy and it was best we could make out of it. We decided not to go out in a restaurant and hence, we had it at the bday boy's place.
Well, it was a bit crampd in his bedrooom and hence, some ppl were sitting in his television room along with his housemates.
We made Abhishek (bday boy) play guitar and I must say he plays better than anyone else who was at the party - he has an electric guitar set.
So, joined in Arun - Arun, with 2 combs (instead of drum sticks) started playing the trembe. btw, Arun is a good drummer. He had a band or something. I guess he even joined some on-campus band of some ppl.They played a couple of numbers after initial warming up and getting in sync with each other a bit.
Some of the guys loved the Blade action while we were having pizza. I was facing opposite direction of the television set and hence, couldn't see much - but what I could witness was a mild bantering by a lady in the group to stop the grose movie. Anyways, movie continued - due to democracy characteristics !
The bday boy took some snaps with the girls of our batch. Ray - as desperate as he was - in order to get a picture with the girls, we gave him some room too !
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juzz kidding - btw, the story was something different !waise - ye hai - humari batch ke kisen kanhaiya - Raymundo Segovia !
btw, some ppl were dressed up - and I mean - really dressed up. I didn't know we had to dress up for this event - so I was pretty casual -
waise - hum Bhabhiji se bhi mile - Mrs. Sudong. I never had a Chinese sis-in-law ...so humne unhe bhabhiji keh diya and bhaiya aur bhabhiji ko uska matlab samjhaya !
Chalo - gotta get back to Telecom Management - shall keep posted :)
Friday, July 07, 2006
...domain knowledge sessions @Infy and Telecom Management course
I used to be upset about the mandatory Telecom domain training at Infosys since I was on Fleet Management project or Real Estate project and they were not even closely related to Telecom business of the firm .
Also, I wanted to desperately shift to Financial domain and they didn't let me.
Today, I would like to thank all of those ppl who tried to push me towards it.
My course Telecom Management (a core course I could not exempt) has huge overlap with what I learnt in SBC/AT&T account at Infosys as extra-domain related knowledge.
This also leaves me with the RoI question again - for the course.
Letsee...that can be worked out.
I shall try to present a NPV analysis of the money spent on this program.
Retiring to bed on this note.
Also, I wanted to desperately shift to Financial domain and they didn't let me.
Today, I would like to thank all of those ppl who tried to push me towards it.
My course Telecom Management (a core course I could not exempt) has huge overlap with what I learnt in SBC/AT&T account at Infosys as extra-domain related knowledge.
This also leaves me with the RoI question again - for the course.
Letsee...that can be worked out.
I shall try to present a NPV analysis of the money spent on this program.
Retiring to bed on this note.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Course: Strategic Corporate Management...contd
Engaging and Enthralling !
That's all I can say about the lecture. It lasted 3.5 hours and I never felt as if I was feeling bored.
[I was distracted in last 10 mins once since Bee came online and we exchanged a few IMs.] But, this class was absolutely mind-blowinG !
Well, to start with the faculty is Dr. J. Lamar Pierce.
Intelligent, extremely good spokesperson with fantastic eye-contact and clear communication.
He has done his PhD from Haas School of Business in California and is in Pittsburgh as VP of a smaller firm. Set expectations clear.
My dilemma whether to do the course due to the course company was resolved since class had an overwhelming majority of flex-time MBA students. btw, Da Lady had already paired up for a team and politely turned down my offer for the Research project team (yeah ! we are going to have a Research project).
Surprisingly, course package had name of Infosys somewhere - "Should Infosys get into BOTS?" ...prollie a topic due to some earlier Infoscion who might have done it successfully here.
More recent topics include Netflix downloadable DVD, Alcoa outsourcing, etc.
We are going to miss one class and hence, some adjustment to be done with a Friday class.
Telecom assignment's to be completed by tomm.
Dr. J. gives ample amount of examples to substantiate his slides which makes it more practical. 10/10 for the lecture. Rapid-fire pace since such a huge research-oriented subject is to be completed in just 6-7 weeks. Whoa !
That's all I can say about the lecture. It lasted 3.5 hours and I never felt as if I was feeling bored.
[I was distracted in last 10 mins once since Bee came online and we exchanged a few IMs.] But, this class was absolutely mind-blowinG !
Well, to start with the faculty is Dr. J. Lamar Pierce.
Intelligent, extremely good spokesperson with fantastic eye-contact and clear communication.
He has done his PhD from Haas School of Business in California and is in Pittsburgh as VP of a smaller firm. Set expectations clear.
My dilemma whether to do the course due to the course company was resolved since class had an overwhelming majority of flex-time MBA students. btw, Da Lady had already paired up for a team and politely turned down my offer for the Research project team (yeah ! we are going to have a Research project).
Surprisingly, course package had name of Infosys somewhere - "Should Infosys get into BOTS?" ...prollie a topic due to some earlier Infoscion who might have done it successfully here.
More recent topics include Netflix downloadable DVD, Alcoa outsourcing, etc.
We are going to miss one class and hence, some adjustment to be done with a Friday class.
Telecom assignment's to be completed by tomm.
Dr. J. gives ample amount of examples to substantiate his slides which makes it more practical. 10/10 for the lecture. Rapid-fire pace since such a huge research-oriented subject is to be completed in just 6-7 weeks. Whoa !
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Course: Strategic Corporate Management
The first question that runs at the back of my mind is whether I should take this course?
Why am I asking this question ? - almost everyone I know from MISM class is going to attend this course. Flex-time students - I have no idea if they are going to attend. Value-addition to me from their experience - no gurantee. I may land up in similar situation as in Org Management.
Would it make sense to take it in the next sem when the Tepper guys are back from their internship. Would it be too much competition then since they are habituated to handling such stuff ? Learning would be more but grading - no gurantee.
So, there is a trade-off: grading v/s learning. Letsee - I shall attend it today to see the class-composition in order to determine whether I take it this time or no.
Why am I asking this question ? - almost everyone I know from MISM class is going to attend this course. Flex-time students - I have no idea if they are going to attend. Value-addition to me from their experience - no gurantee. I may land up in similar situation as in Org Management.
Would it make sense to take it in the next sem when the Tepper guys are back from their internship. Would it be too much competition then since they are habituated to handling such stuff ? Learning would be more but grading - no gurantee.
So, there is a trade-off: grading v/s learning. Letsee - I shall attend it today to see the class-composition in order to determine whether I take it this time or no.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Frustrated soul ?
Is he frustrated ,...or somebody played upon him ??
On one of the windows... in the bldg opposite UC..
On one of the windows... in the bldg opposite UC..
Monday, July 03, 2006
Course: Professional Intelligence for Enterprise Leadership
Bang !... starts the next mini - as if the previous mini ended just a couple of days ago.
I was tired and still in a lethargic mood - a mood to party and be laid back. However, that cannot continue since we have Telecom assignment (huge one) and Telecom midterms coming up in the next week. Hence, focus would be on Telecom Management for rest of the week.
This course on Professional Intelligence for Enterprise Leadership focuses on EI (Emotional Intelligence) and book recommended for reading is:
Linking EI and performance at work
The grading appeared to be vague since we have grading based on Journal entries (I think I will make a blog for it) and some Results project which we have to do for Bill Strickland's (he is an icon) firm. We would be helping him with several aspects such as documenting his processes etc (in doing so, learning the same).
btw, this course seemed to be interesting with the EI dimension to it and does address one of the parts I had mentioned to Andy at the fall party last year. Let us see how it goes from here. Second installation of this week's Leadership is due on Wednesday and some CXO of Bill's company is going to come to CMU to explain us the role we shall be playing. That should be neat !
I was tired and still in a lethargic mood - a mood to party and be laid back. However, that cannot continue since we have Telecom assignment (huge one) and Telecom midterms coming up in the next week. Hence, focus would be on Telecom Management for rest of the week.
This course on Professional Intelligence for Enterprise Leadership focuses on EI (Emotional Intelligence) and book recommended for reading is:
Linking EI and performance at work
The grading appeared to be vague since we have grading based on Journal entries (I think I will make a blog for it) and some Results project which we have to do for Bill Strickland's (he is an icon) firm. We would be helping him with several aspects such as documenting his processes etc (in doing so, learning the same).
btw, this course seemed to be interesting with the EI dimension to it and does address one of the parts I had mentioned to Andy at the fall party last year. Let us see how it goes from here. Second installation of this week's Leadership is due on Wednesday and some CXO of Bill's company is going to come to CMU to explain us the role we shall be playing. That should be neat !
Sunday, June 25, 2006
1 down ....6 to go
The countdown has begun.
Letsee.............
I am done with Strategic Cost Analysis
On Tuesday, I shall be done with Entrepreneurism - evening test
On Wed - its Consulting and Conflict Management
On Thursday, Financial Analysis and Stats for Biz Mgrs should be done
on Fri - I shall be done with
Last but not the least - Telecom midterms would be done by 10 July.
But, bang goes the bullet and from next Monday starts another Mini...mini 6 .
So, by 10 July - officialy 12.5% of my program would be done !
Letsee.............
I am done with Strategic Cost Analysis
On Tuesday, I shall be done with Entrepreneurism - evening test
On Wed - its Consulting and Conflict Management
On Thursday, Financial Analysis and Stats for Biz Mgrs should be done
on Fri - I shall be done with
Last but not the least - Telecom midterms would be done by 10 July.
But, bang goes the bullet and from next Monday starts another Mini...mini 6 .
So, by 10 July - officialy 12.5% of my program would be done !
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Software metrics
Now, that's a link from the Stats for IT Managers mini-project..however, might be useful for software engineers and managers for knowing different metrics
http://www.it.fht-esslingen.de/~rau/forschung/metrics.htm.
http://www.it.fht-esslingen.de/~rau/forschung/metrics.htm.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Podcasts for lectures from UC Berkeley !
Check this link out for podcasts from UC Berkeley for lectures.
This is a new growing trend. I had heard about this while once driving to work on NPR !
This is a new growing trend. I had heard about this while once driving to work on NPR !
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
India, Israel, and Ireland
Are multi-national firms doing knowledge spillover for local companies?
A study from software industry in India, Israel, and Ireland.
A study from software industry in India, Israel, and Ireland.
Friday, June 16, 2006
bill gates
Everybody was discussing soccer games and it was surprising for me to find out that ppl were not discussing about the sultan of software industry stepping down ! I was wondering what the hell is wrong with CMU MISM students ? Aren't they supposed to be technology ppl ? CNN
Gates gifted a 20 million $ centre to CMU after all !
Critics have been harsh on him throughout his industry leadership(aka domination) reign. Competitors made weird comments to gain psychological domination and playing politics with vast majority of fools believing in them.
He is the guy who said: We can't rest for a second.
Awesome !
True capitalist...knows the reality - if you don't improve the products - somebody else will.
Once he grasped that... he utilized it to his utmost advantage !
Gates and Buffet have been leaders in their own arenas and have known what they are doing. Time and time again they have proven their mettle. What makes ppl more jealous of Gates than Buffet is the fact that he achieved it too soon in his life vis-a-vis Buffet who achieved it at a later stage in life. Gates generation could not believe that some nerd can be so successful.
Triumph of the nerds is a nice movie to watch out the history of Silicon Valley (from early days of Microsoft to 1996 when a new version of Windows was launched).
To an extent what the Indian services companies are achieving are something similar to what Microsoft did...come out with an array of services (MS did products) and sell them to ppl to make their lives easier. Infosys has been documented to be one of those companies which are like Walmart - a disruptive innovator by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen ! Its framework for distributed project management, the ability to deploy multi-location, multi-time-zone teams to execute projects efficiently and at low cost.
Well, there are harsh critics for Infosys too. But then there are afficianodos of Infy ...ppl like ME ! Simply marvelous operations - noone could believe it would've happened. With a vision NRN had appealed for more IT grads and with limited success he could get more schools to have IT as a major !
Says Murthy, Infy's chief Mentor: We have to transform our people so that from reactive problem solvers, they become proactive problem definers. We want our people to go to a CEO and say: I have looked at your organisation. Things seem to be all right today, but you will run into this problem two years from now. Infosys can provide you a solution today."
Letsee what Gates has to say about Infy !
I would say - yes, Microsoft got fat and lazy - they adopted the easier path of using monopoly !
But after a while in business, Gates realised that prollie that was the way to go. Gates' exit leaves a lot of questions - was it an exit at the top (since he has a vision of MS going downhill) ? or was it for those true philanthropic needs !
I hope he cuts out all the inefficiencies in the non-profit space and gets an industry domination there too.
I hate to see ppl despising innovators or ppl despising individuals/organizations who want to cut down inefficiencies in the system and in the journey make money.
For them, money was never the goal - as Paul Fajerski (entrepreneurism prof) said - they were always in it for
- they wanted to see if they can do it
- they wanted that when they speak, others listen !
On this note, I shall get back to my assignments and projects.
I hate to see you go Bill - but may be that's what is right - for you - for everybody and noone would have a better vision of that than anyone else :)
Gates gifted a 20 million $ centre to CMU after all !
Critics have been harsh on him throughout his industry leadership(aka domination) reign. Competitors made weird comments to gain psychological domination and playing politics with vast majority of fools believing in them.
He is the guy who said: We can't rest for a second.
Awesome !
True capitalist...knows the reality - if you don't improve the products - somebody else will.
Once he grasped that... he utilized it to his utmost advantage !
Gates and Buffet have been leaders in their own arenas and have known what they are doing. Time and time again they have proven their mettle. What makes ppl more jealous of Gates than Buffet is the fact that he achieved it too soon in his life vis-a-vis Buffet who achieved it at a later stage in life. Gates generation could not believe that some nerd can be so successful.
Triumph of the nerds is a nice movie to watch out the history of Silicon Valley (from early days of Microsoft to 1996 when a new version of Windows was launched).
To an extent what the Indian services companies are achieving are something similar to what Microsoft did...come out with an array of services (MS did products) and sell them to ppl to make their lives easier. Infosys has been documented to be one of those companies which are like Walmart - a disruptive innovator by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen ! Its framework for distributed project management, the ability to deploy multi-location, multi-time-zone teams to execute projects efficiently and at low cost.
Well, there are harsh critics for Infosys too. But then there are afficianodos of Infy ...ppl like ME ! Simply marvelous operations - noone could believe it would've happened. With a vision NRN had appealed for more IT grads and with limited success he could get more schools to have IT as a major !
Says Murthy, Infy's chief Mentor: We have to transform our people so that from reactive problem solvers, they become proactive problem definers. We want our people to go to a CEO and say: I have looked at your organisation. Things seem to be all right today, but you will run into this problem two years from now. Infosys can provide you a solution today."
Moving up the ladder has not only improved Infy's margins but it has also helped the company integrate more with its customers needs.
It's exactly the right strategy for Infosys to follow. It does have to move up the ladder, says Christensen.
Letsee what Gates has to say about Infy !
I would say - yes, Microsoft got fat and lazy - they adopted the easier path of using monopoly !
But after a while in business, Gates realised that prollie that was the way to go. Gates' exit leaves a lot of questions - was it an exit at the top (since he has a vision of MS going downhill) ? or was it for those true philanthropic needs !
I hope he cuts out all the inefficiencies in the non-profit space and gets an industry domination there too.
I hate to see ppl despising innovators or ppl despising individuals/organizations who want to cut down inefficiencies in the system and in the journey make money.
For them, money was never the goal - as Paul Fajerski (entrepreneurism prof) said - they were always in it for
- they wanted to see if they can do it
- they wanted that when they speak, others listen !
On this note, I shall get back to my assignments and projects.
I hate to see you go Bill - but may be that's what is right - for you - for everybody and noone would have a better vision of that than anyone else :)
Thursday, June 15, 2006
YAT !
Well,
This is YAH now... Yet Another Thursday !
Oh man...this is the last class for the week and I am so exhausted. huffffffffffffff !
Strategic cost accounting is like the last nail in the coffin.
Also, I figured out a plan for this weekend..I have 27 hours worth of work to be done for the program.
That leaves me with 9 hours per day on Fri, Sat, and Sun....and if any of it goes non-productive..I am thoroughly packed and time management would be challenging.
OM assignment is due Monday. FA assignment is due Tuesday. Telecom project is due sometime (I dont remember anymore). SCA quiz is due Saturday. SCA assignment is due Wednesday.
Minis end this month end and hence, after the next week, we would be preparing for a battle...final exams ! (40% of it goes towards the GPA) !
When I took up 7 courses..I didn't feel the pinch...now, I do !
This is YAH now... Yet Another Thursday !
Oh man...this is the last class for the week and I am so exhausted. huffffffffffffff !
Strategic cost accounting is like the last nail in the coffin.
Also, I figured out a plan for this weekend..I have 27 hours worth of work to be done for the program.
That leaves me with 9 hours per day on Fri, Sat, and Sun....and if any of it goes non-productive..I am thoroughly packed and time management would be challenging.
OM assignment is due Monday. FA assignment is due Tuesday. Telecom project is due sometime (I dont remember anymore). SCA quiz is due Saturday. SCA assignment is due Wednesday.
Minis end this month end and hence, after the next week, we would be preparing for a battle...final exams ! (40% of it goes towards the GPA) !
When I took up 7 courses..I didn't feel the pinch...now, I do !
YASC !
YASC ?
wazzat ?
Yet Another Superb Class.
Well, the Consulting and Conflict Management class keeps on getting better and better.
The first one was a role play for my team v/s another team.
Roleplay was such that myself and Arun were investors and Gopi was the VP-Marketing.
VP wants to open a business in emerging markets where she would have to give corruption. I had to play the resistant part(blue team) since as an investor I didn't want my name at stake.
Red Team comprising of Ernie (snap on left) - an entrepreneur in real life - was playing the entrepreneur team of a startup who is trying to solve the conflict between VP Marketing and investor. One part I saw was he found giving away equity as a way to attract resources...be it ppl or be it money guys. (This is something which Paul had asked to avoid and I lost a mark in Entrepreneurism midterm on that...debt should be acquired before giving up equity)
Now, Ernie and his team was trying hard to resolve this conflict.
Conflict nature - used all the dirty tricks from "Getting to Yes". Prof complimented me for this roleplay.
For me, the Resistance meter hit - 90.
Mission accomplished ! After all, my role was to play the hardbargainer with dirty tricks....trying to crush out the adversarial party. The entrepreneurs were literally with me ...creating a win-lose situation in the conflict between investor and VP. anyways, it was all a case !
I wasn't as hard but I was rigged to 90 by a 40 on competition.
There was another team where they played cool and got a resistance meter reading of just 20. That was lack of roleplaying by their investors and VP marketing.
Ernie was the rational guy. Tony got emotional and Wilbur was the good guy.
They almost got us close to a win-win situation and hence, kudos to them.
btw, Amy and Allan played it well.
They had a fantastic strategy. Right at the outset Allan made positives clear to the conflicting parties (VP and investor). Ernie didn't agree that it would work in real life due to the apology which accompanied it. However, professor was happy to know a new technique ! It worked here...and he would try to research on where all it can work.
A superb deal was snatched by Yolanda (snap on right)!
Abhishek, herself and Amir were lined up for their team.
They got the deal snatched from the players (these were seasoned ppl with Tricia(she manages 21 men in GE) n other flex-time students with loadssa experience.
They offered them just 36k (substantially lower than 48k deal which they had to reach).
Yolanda spun a tale with "Fellowship" package for the new MBA hires who were to get a job at the startup for more money. Abhishek had offered them 19k ...he was trying to get them for free ! Ernie disclosed that he gets ppl free for his business at times by providing creative solutions as prof would put it "expanding the pie" !
Schedule is getting hectic day by day and time management has become key to survival.
My team (Arun and Gopi):
"bhai, stats assignment karna hai....jaane de !"
that reminds me of the terrible nervous pangs I got when I learnt that I had a quiz to be done by midnight and had just 1.5 hours to do it..of which 45 mins were for the test...hence, just 45 mins for preparation.
I was glad at the screen starting to work for me !
Finally, I could get it running for me !
btw, this is for displaying my name at the place I sit.
wazzat ?
Yet Another Superb Class.
Well, the Consulting and Conflict Management class keeps on getting better and better.
The first one was a role play for my team v/s another team.
Roleplay was such that myself and Arun were investors and Gopi was the VP-Marketing.
VP wants to open a business in emerging markets where she would have to give corruption. I had to play the resistant part(blue team) since as an investor I didn't want my name at stake.
Red Team comprising of Ernie (snap on left) - an entrepreneur in real life - was playing the entrepreneur team of a startup who is trying to solve the conflict between VP Marketing and investor. One part I saw was he found giving away equity as a way to attract resources...be it ppl or be it money guys. (This is something which Paul had asked to avoid and I lost a mark in Entrepreneurism midterm on that...debt should be acquired before giving up equity)Now, Ernie and his team was trying hard to resolve this conflict.
Conflict nature - used all the dirty tricks from "Getting to Yes". Prof complimented me for this roleplay.
For me, the Resistance meter hit - 90.
Mission accomplished ! After all, my role was to play the hardbargainer with dirty tricks....trying to crush out the adversarial party. The entrepreneurs were literally with me ...creating a win-lose situation in the conflict between investor and VP. anyways, it was all a case !
I wasn't as hard but I was rigged to 90 by a 40 on competition.
There was another team where they played cool and got a resistance meter reading of just 20. That was lack of roleplaying by their investors and VP marketing.
Ernie was the rational guy. Tony got emotional and Wilbur was the good guy.
They almost got us close to a win-win situation and hence, kudos to them.
btw, Amy and Allan played it well.
They had a fantastic strategy. Right at the outset Allan made positives clear to the conflicting parties (VP and investor). Ernie didn't agree that it would work in real life due to the apology which accompanied it. However, professor was happy to know a new technique ! It worked here...and he would try to research on where all it can work.
A superb deal was snatched by Yolanda (snap on right)!
Abhishek, herself and Amir were lined up for their team.
They got the deal snatched from the players (these were seasoned ppl with Tricia(she manages 21 men in GE) n other flex-time students with loadssa experience.
They offered them just 36k (substantially lower than 48k deal which they had to reach).
Yolanda spun a tale with "Fellowship" package for the new MBA hires who were to get a job at the startup for more money. Abhishek had offered them 19k ...he was trying to get them for free ! Ernie disclosed that he gets ppl free for his business at times by providing creative solutions as prof would put it "expanding the pie" !
Schedule is getting hectic day by day and time management has become key to survival.
My team (Arun and Gopi):
"bhai, stats assignment karna hai....jaane de !"
that reminds me of the terrible nervous pangs I got when I learnt that I had a quiz to be done by midnight and had just 1.5 hours to do it..of which 45 mins were for the test...hence, just 45 mins for preparation.
I was glad at the screen starting to work for me !
Finally, I could get it running for me !
btw, this is for displaying my name at the place I sit.
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