3 steps to easier networking with people
Most people are too shy to meet strangers and carry on a conversation with them. Networking with people can, however change your life by giving you access to information you would never have otherwise, like new job openings, or interesting business prospects. Jeff Colvin has a simple three step process for networking with people during an event.
1. Prepare : Find out about the people who might be there, and the industries you are interested in.
2. Meet and Listen: Introduce yourself to a group and listen well to a conversatoin. Note down ideas on the backs of the business cards you get from people in the group.
3. Follow up: Send an e-mail within 24 hours – Reintroduce yourself, and talk about the ideas and solutions you have. People will be interested.
[Link:] Jeff Colvin’s Management Tips
Posted by Anil on September 29th, 2004 :: Filed under
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The Taj turns 350
A tribute to the Taj Mahal. (I’ll resist the temptation to say “Man’s greatest erection for a woman”).
Posted by Anil on September 29th, 2004 :: Filed under
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Should you spend money on technology or development?
I posted this story on Slashdot about India’s moon mission and as expected, there were plenty of comments on the lines of ‘Shouldn’t India focus on removing poverty before sending rockets to the moon?’. I could give plenty of arguments about how it is impossible for a nation to focus single-mindedly on development while completely ignoring technological progress, but one poster gave the best possible analogy using the President’s Moon to Mars commission report:
One hundred and fifty years ago, if President Lincoln had formed this board, you might have called the “The Commission on Iowa, Colorado and Beyond.” And you would have faced the very same questions!
“Can we afford to explore the West?”
“Isn’t it dangerous out there?”
“Shouldn’t we solve the problems of the East Coast first?”
And maybe even, “Is there life in California?”
(This comment was actually made by a witness during a public hearing of the Blue Ribbon Space Commission in San Francisco)
$83 million spent on science is $83 million that creates jobs, makes people want to get get educated, makes educated people want to work in India, and yes, it’s $83 million that’s *not* spent on bombs. I say, Hurray!
Posted by Anil on September 28th, 2004 :: Filed under
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Obligatory periodic link to new pictures 
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I took this picture a few weeks back during the Vegas trip. There was a railway track running parallel to the freeway and this train just happened to be zooming by. Holding the camera still was a bitch, but somehow it behaved for the duration of the shot. |
| If the camera doesn’t stay still when you are shooting, this is what you can sometimes get |
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[Link:] Complete Photo Gallery
Posted by Anil on September 27th, 2004 :: Filed under
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Locking out Academics
Bruce Schiener (the guru of cryptography) has written a piece on how tight visa controls are hurting academics in the US. It’s become so difficult for academics to come to the US in the past three years that people are simply scheduling conferences elsewhere. Many students are opting to do their graduate studies in other countries such as Canada due to visa hassles. As any researcher will tell you, only a small percentage of all published papers are written solely by American researchers – the graduate college in most schools would not exist if it were not for the foreign students who come here for research. The great technological achievements in this country are partly due to the contributions from countless brilliant minds who have come here from all over the globe – it will America’s loss to see them go elsewhere!
Posted by Anil on September 26th, 2004 :: Filed under
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The world’s first education satellite
On monday, India launched the world’s first education satellite – a two tonne (~2000 kgs) satellite using a home-built rocket. The Indian space program has come a long way from 1975 when it built a satellite that was sent piggyback to space on a Soviet rocket. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) soon built its own rockets, but for a long time it did not have the capability to launch the heavier satellites and was dependant on the European Union’s Ariane rockets. With this satellite launch, India has finally dumped the Ariane rockets for its home-brewed GSLVs (Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicles).
Why is this newsworthy? It’s not just about the technological achievement (which is impressive since ISRO manages to work wonders with its miniscule budgets and limited access to technology, thanks to periodic US sanctions). The thing that I love the most is that money is being spent on technology that brings education to millions of Indians without access to proper schools, instead of spending it on weaponry and wars. It’s always sad when schools have to beg for money when billions are spent on missiles and warships that only mess up the world.
Posted by Anil on September 26th, 2004 :: Filed under
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Why DRM is bad for you, me and my neighbor’s dog.
Cory Doctorow gave an excellent talk to the Microsoft research group at Redmond on why DRM is ineffective, bad for business, bad for society, bad for artistes and bad for all the companies involved. Cory makes the excellent point that while DRM is totally ineffective (as in, it is never possible to protect media from being duplicated illegally as long as there is some way to play it legally) the entertainment industry is bent on creating legislation that makes it illegal to try to circumvent DRM – never mind the fact that you already own the media. So even if you buy a DVD, it is illegal to try to circumvent the built-in DRM to try to play it on your Linux box, or to copy it to a tape as a backup. The weirdest thing about DRM on DVDs is the region-encoding system used – If you buy a DVD in the US, you cannot play it in any other region, say Europe or Asia. Think about it – if you buy an audio tape, or a book in the US, would you be pissed if you could not play it or read if when you go abroad?
Continuing the general trend of help-me-I’m-drowning acts from the MPAA, they have pushed through legislation in California which makes it a misdemeanor to share files online without publishing your email address. Woohoo! Isn’t that the holy grail for law enforcement? Now all you need to do in order to track a file sharer is the email address. Of course, someone hasn’t heard of free email addresses, or even bogus ones.
Posted by Anil on September 22nd, 2004 :: Filed under
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Same shit, new place.
I’m in the process of moving my site entirely to this domain. I am also putting together a new home page for this site, and a better site for my photographs. I’d like to change the look of this page, but then I don’t care and I know you don’t either. (Don’t you just love my smiling mug?) I have also moved over to the Blogger comment system, and I could not figure out a way to retain the old comments, so we’ll have to start all over again here. Keep coming, and keep posting!
Posted by Anil on September 21st, 2004 :: Filed under
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And now for your morning dose of entertainment. Check out this freakin’ hilarious video. Keep your audio on (no, this is not one of those scary screaming videos) and close the door so you can laugh. (Thanks Vivek)
Posted by Anil on September 21st, 2004 :: Filed under
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Even as ‘The Donald’ makes that twisted face and says ‘You’re fired’ to people each week on his show, his Casino business is going down under. Of course, such stuff cannot hurt him (probably his shareholders – but, naah, not ‘The Donald’) and he can continue to make his asinine remarks on television, write bestsellers and sell credit cards (and pimp himself out to anyone else who can offer him dough). Seriously, this guy is so pompous and blatantly egotistical that you wish someone would fire him.
The show, however is addictive because of all the contestants and the real-life tasks they have to perform. I wish they did not have the restriction of having to be a citizen/permanent resident to compete – we would get to see leaner and meaner competitors.
Posted by Anil on September 20th, 2004 :: Filed under
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