Vetty Officer's Weblog

Small Product, Single Founder Success Stories !!!

2011-10-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Few days back, in the Hacker's News I found this interesting post : "Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?"

The comment section of that post, had lots and lots of inspiring single founder success stories. So I thought of compiling a list of all those success stories with a brief summary. I hope this helps those searching for something like this :)

If you know about any inspiring stories missing in this list, please do mention them in the comments section.

Balsamiq - Mockup tool for software.
This is one of the most inspiring startup stories for single founders. You can read more about its founder Peldi and his story HERE.
Bignoggins Productions - sports app for mobile devices.
With the money from these apps, the founder is currently travelling around the world with his wife. Read more about his travel experience in his blog.
Electric Function, Inc. - CMS and web application Frameworks.
The 23 year old founder says he takes a nice salary and is also doing his PhD.
Indefero - Code hosting and Project management.
They are happily running this business from 2008.
scribophile.com and writerfolio.com - online Writers community and portfolio site.
The founder says, these sites fund his travel across the world, his loans, etc.
Sifter - Hosted Issue & Bug tracker.
Though not a great success, the founder says he is happily running this for about 3+ years.

Search Engine for Indian Classifieds [SW Idea 3]

2011-09-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

Problem :
a) There are nearly 100+ classified sites in India, a user has to search separately in each of these sites to find what he needs.
b) Many of these sites, don't remove the old items which also gets listed in the search results
c) Unfortunately, even the Google doesn't give the best results for this kind of search queries.

Solution:
a) A search engine - exclusively for classified sites in India only.
b) Proper categorization of the classified ads and removal of old data at regular intervals
c) Simple and easy to use UI for search.
d) Additional Socializing features - like share with friends, etc.

Existing solution for this requirement:
I did some search - though very little one - and found only one site www.oodle.com doing something similar to this in US. I also found few articles about their controversies with the popular classified site craiglist, which means, more research needs to be done about this idea :)

Samsung Galaxy Ace - User Review

2011-08-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

My wife gifted a Samsung Galaxy Ace, for my birthday. Since this is the first smart phone that i am using, I am yet to explore all the features in these phone.

Anyways, here is my feedback about this mobile phone after 10 days of usage - things might change later :-)

As said earlier, being the first smart phone that I am using, most of the things look wonderful to me - especially the camera, the appearance, the display etc.
Photos come out very clear. the videos are good and above all I like the Panorama feature in the camera
Best value for money - with so many apps in the android market place

well here are few bad things about this phone

If you play games / watch a youtube video - the power drains out very quickly - I heard that all touch phones have this problem
the zooming in touch screen is not that smooth, when the documents/images are very big.
This is not the phones problem, but the Android's problem - The Keyboard sucks :-(

My Online Income Report!!!

2011-03-11T05:01:00.000-08:00

Today, after reading KreCi's blog post about his February 2011 Income Report, I thought even I should post about my online income i,e. from this Weblog. I setup my Google Adsense account somewhere around April 2006 and then got my first cheque from the Google Team in July 2008.

It took almost 2+ years to make that first 100$ (averaging about 4$ per month at that time) - but the income started decreasing after that. It is almost 3 years, after that first payment and it is yet to reach the next 100$ mark - currently it is averaging only about 1.5 - 2 US$ a month. (Recession!!!)

Total revenue for February 2011 was US$ 1.61 only!!!!!

Well, considering the amount of time I put for this blog and the quality of contents here - this is not at all a bad number :-)

about choosing the right programming language for a software startup...

2010-10-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

"Which is the right programming language for a software startup???"

This is not a simple question to give the right answer in one word. The argument about choosing the right programming language for a software startup can go on for ever and ever, because every language will have its own advantages and disadvantages when compared with the other programming languages.

Here are some of my random thoughts about choosing a programming language for a software startup:

# Do not blindly follow the trend - i,e don't choose a programming language just because there are many software startups using that particular language. Though such languages are better options, there are lot more factors to make the final decision.

# Product Requirement is the king, hence choose a programming language that best suits and can easily accomplish your product's requirements.

# Check for the availability of frameworks and other useful libraries for your product requirement in the programming language you want to choose. Frameworks are very important for startups to keep up their pace.

# Give more preference to the programming language which the team members are familiar with - provided the programming language they knew, could easily accomplish your product requirement. Expertise in a programming language is always directly proportional to the productivity, which will surely be an added advantage for startups.

# Have an eye on the availability and cost of hiring a programmer in the language you choose.

# Don't worry about a tomorrow's problem. Do not avoid a language you already knew, just because it cannot scale for millions of users in the future. Providing quick deliveries are more important for software startups than to worry about problems that might arise in the future - hence choose a language which gives more productivity than something which will solve a future problem.

You pick up any programming language available today - I am sure there will be atleast one hugely successful company built in that technology.

# Mixing of 2 or more langugages is no more a rocket science, today. Google is doing this, Facebook is doing this and so even your startup can do this - when you feel only some other programming language could better handle a problem in your software.

# A startup is not about the language, it's all about the people. It is the Great Developers - not the programming languages - that build great software. Hence follow a agile and the best people-friendly methodologies for any language you choose.

# and finally, don't worry too much, just startup!!! - because this is what matters the most :-)

Please feel free to add your suggestions or feedback in the comments section

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

2010-10-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

This poem by Robert Frost will forever be close to many people's life..

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

History of the To-Do Lists

2010-10-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Today, the most widely used and suggested tip for efficient time management is - to maintain a perfect To-Do list. Few people seriously follow this and the few, like me, prefer to have a To-Do list something like this :-)

well jokes apart, here is an interesting story about how these To-Do lists started off:

Once, almost an hundred years ago, an industrialist called Charles M Schwab, who was the President of the Bethlehem Steel company in USA felt that things aren't going that smoothly for him and the company. So in order to improve his own efficiency and of the management team at the steel company, he sought the help of Ivy Lee, who was a famous efficiency expert then.

Mr. Lee agreed to improve the people's efficiency and when he was asked about the cost, Ivy said, "Nothing, unless this works. After 3 months you can send me any amount for whatever you feel it is worth to your company" .

Ivy Lee spent about 15 minutes with each member of the management team and asked them to follow the below instructions:

At the end of each day, write down the six most important tasks to be done on the next day
Prioritize the list.
Next day, start working on the first task and when that task gets completed, start working on the second task and so on.
At the end of the day again, create the list for the next day, adding the unfinished tasks for that day to the top of the list.
Do this for the next 3 months and check the results.

At first, all executives were surprised with this but interestingly, this idea, which looked very simple did wonders in the steel company and after 3 months, it is said that Mr. Charles Schwab sent Lee, a check for $25000!!!!!!

$25000 in those 1900s is indeed an huge amount - what an idea sir ji !!!

Attritions and small software teams

2010-10-09T05:15:00.001-07:00

Personally, I feel this "Attrition" is the toughest challenge for any software team - especially when the team size is very small. Attritions aren't something new in the software industry. It keeps happening everywhere and the rate becomes high during the IT market booms. People change jobs for better pays, for better positions and sometimes even to escape from the current bad managers.

The after-effects, when a team member leaves depends upon how prepared the team was. If seen from top, 20 members leaving a 1000 people organization, might appear less effective, but a single person leaving a three member team will have its own big impact.

So how to handle this situation in a small software team??

When an important resource from a small software team leaves, it really becomes very hard to find an immediate replacement and to keep the momentum going. Finding a right replacement isn't a easy task - it might take few weeks and in worst cases it might even take few months. Hence for small software teams, prevention and being prepared are the only ways to handle an attrition.

# Keep the team members happy : ensure they get correct rewards for their good work and ensure they knew about the stronger career paths available. Still pay checks alone will not retain a good employee - hence also make sure the workplace has more fun working.

# Be a good people friendly manager - its ok if people leave for better pay/positions, but a team member leaving because of a bad manager, isn't really good for the team and the manager himself.

# Work as a team. Make everyone realize and get involved in the team's goals. This is always good for the team.

# Be watchful - one need not keep watching someone for 24x7. Any degradation in work/behavior can be easily felt in a small team. If you suspect something to happen, sit down, analyze well, try to avoid it or get prepared for the challenge.

# Always have an extra person in the team. If 4 members can manage all the works in a team, then have 5 members in the team.

How to add Syntax Highlight (syntaxhighlighter) to Blogger

2010-09-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, we would like to post some code snippets in our blogger blogs.

SyntaxHighlighter (an open-source js library available @ Google Code) can highlight the keywords in your code and provide a better visual appearance to your posted code.

Here is how you can integrate the SyntaxHighlighter in your Blogger blog:

1. Go to SyntaxHighlighter page @ Google Code :
http://code.google.com/p/syntaxhighlighter

2. Download their latest version and extract it.

3. It is sufficient, if you host only the css file (SyntaxHighlighter.css) in your hosting server

(if you don't have one, Google Site will be helpful to you)

4. All required Javascript files can be accessed from the Google Code site itself.

5. Now, go to your Blogger Template > Edit HTML

6. In the Template, add the below code, after the end of the footer div.


<link href="http://[HOSTING_SERVER]/SyntaxHighlighter.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

<script language="javascript" src="http://syntaxhighlighter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Scripts/shCore.js"></script>

<script language="javascript" src="http://syntaxhighlighter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Scripts/shBrushJava.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" src="http://syntaxhighlighter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Scripts/shBrushCpp.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" src="http://syntaxhighlighter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Scripts/shBrushXml.js"></script>

<script language='javascript'>
 dp.SyntaxHighlighter.BloggerMode();
 dp.SyntaxHighlighter.HighlightAll('code');
</script>

Configure the Hosting Server correctly (line1). Instead you can also use the css in my page with the below code:


<link href="http://sites.google.com/site/pratheesr/SyntaxHighlighter.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

I have included only the javascript files for Java, Cpp and XML in this code snippet. You will have to add the appropriate javascript file for each programming language.

You can find the complete list of supported languages and their javascript file links @ http://syntaxhighlighter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Scripts

7. After saving the template, you can post your codes in the posts within a pre tag and appropriate class name, as follows:


<pre name="code" class="java">
... some code here ...
</pre>

The Express Avenue Mall @ Namma Chennai :-)

2010-08-13T05:23:00.000-07:00

Here comes another shopping mall to our Chennai City - The Express Avenue (EA) mall at Royapettah. I was told that the mall is owned by the Indian Express company. Work is still in progress though 30-40% of the shops are already open for the public.

Where is EA?

Here is the address of the mall : Express Avenue Mall, Club House Road, Express Estate, Royapettah, Chennai. (Its opposite to the famous Royapettah Clock Tower)

View Larger Map

Whats there @ EA?

As mentioned above, only 30-40% of the shops are open now. Many famous brands (Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen, Peter England, Adidas, Reebok, etc) have opened their showrooms here. The planning about grouping the showrooms (eg: Men's apparel showrooms next to each other, likewise for footwear shops, kids wear shops, etc) is a very good idea.

Big Bazaar has opened a large shop in the mall - i think this is bigger than their Vadapalani showroom.

and here is an animation video about the design of the mall:

Entertainment @ EA:

The Satyam Cinemas is opening up 8 screens in the top floor by the start of next month.

Food Court @ EA:

Again many famous foot outlets in Chennai have stall, here. The only drawback is that cash is not accepted in any of this stalls. We need to buy something called EA Food Card (for Rs. 20/-) and then refill them with some amount to buy food.

the Grilled Chicken @ the Arabian Hut there tasted good. 1/2 plate (Rs. 120/-) will be sufficient for two people.

Parking

They almost charge like Rs. 10/- per hour for a two wheeler. I don't know if it is only for the weekends, but even then this is too much. Also there was no mobile signal in the parking area (which is actually below the basement) If you want to test the power of you vehicle in climbing heights, you can do it over here while coming out of the parking area

Overall, the Express Avenue mall is certainly a pleasant shopping (even if its only a window shopping) experience in the city - provided you don't take your own vehicle.

Google kills Google Wave!!!

2010-08-04T21:43:00.001-07:00

Finally, it is official. Google says that they will stop active development in Google Wave - which earlier they thought would change the way people communicate in the internet.

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked."

"We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product"

"....extend the technology for use in other Google projects."

Google's blog post @ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Honestly, I wasn't excited about using Google Wave at all - though in bits and pieces it was good, but it wasn't useful to me anywhere. Instead of projecting it as a stand-alone product, if it was established as a protocol, I think it might have been a good alternative to email.

I hope as they had mentioned, the good bits and pieces of Google Wave will be more useful after being part of other Google projects.

iPhone Code #4: The Mac OS X keyboard Cheat Sheet

2010-07-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

As mentioned earlier, iPhone applications can be developed only in the Mac OS X computers. Personally, having worked in Windows for more than a decade, I really found it hard to work on the Mac Computer. The change from Windows world to Mac world is a great challenge for me

So here is a list of some of the shortcuts used in Mac OS. I hope to keep extending this cheat sheet in the future. In case, if any of the important item had beem missed out, please do mention in in the comments section.

iPhone Code #3 : Hardware and Software Requirements

2010-07-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

Here are the list of basic hardware and software requirements for developing an iPhone application:

1. A Mac Computer
This is the foremost requirement, because iPhone applications can be developed only in an Intel based Apple X OS computer. So you ll need a Mac Book or even a Mac Mini or any other Mac computer running the Leopard 10.5.4 or later version.

2. iPhone SDK
This is the software used to write, compile and run the iPhone applications. The iPhone SDK can be downloaded from the Apple's website after registering as a developer there. This software suite includes - the XCode IDE, the Interface Builder for iPhone , the iPhone Simulator and few more tools useful for the app development (More details about these software will be covered in forthcoming posts)

3. an iPhone
Well this is not a mandatory requirement - we can manage with the iPhone Simulator that comes as a part of the iPhone SDK. Anyways, having an iPhone (or even an iTouch) will be really useful to do some real case testing for the app (in slow network, etc)

iPhone Code #2 : Where to Start????

2010-07-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

When I started searching the internet to learn about the iPhone app development, as always it happens there were plenty of information with a very simple problem - I didn't know where to start from.

As I was glancing though the URLs, I found one interesting blog post from Dale Dietrich @ "iPhone App Development - Where to Start?" The title itself, explains it all. Dale has put down very useful information for a beginner in this post.

So, if you are beginner and don't know where to start the iPhone app development, go right here :

"iPhone App Development - Where to Start?"

iPhone Code #1: Hello (iPhone App Develpment) World!!!!

2010-07-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

I am really happy the way, I have worked in the last 5+ years.

First for more than a year, I was coding in C/C++ and then for sometimes it was pure server side Java coding. Later for sometimes, I was putting my bugs in VBScripts and then it was again back to Java, but this time more focus was on the front-end involving JavaScript, Ajax, jQuery, etc.

and here comes the next in this list - iPhone application development!!!

So for sometimes, its going to be ..... hmmm whats that, objective-c? Cocoa?? xCode??? Whatever it is, I hope to have a wonderful time putting bugs in that little gadget.

I will be posting my iPhone coding experience, things I find interesting, etc here @ iPhone Code

Toy Story 3

2010-07-09T08:25:00.001-07:00

In short - Toy Story 3 is an amazing movie. Entertainment guaranteed!!!

8.9 rating by the IMDB users (Toy Story 3 is at Top 6) says it all about the movie. If you would like to watch a funny movie and feel the kid within yourself - go watch Toy Story 3!!!

Few useful jQuery resources and links

2010-07-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

Here are few links about jQuery, I found very useful to me:

1. jQuery Fundamentals by Rebecca Murphey - a very useful link/content for beginners wanting to learn jQuery

2. jQuery API Browser - another very useful searchable version of the API browser for jQuery

3. Visual jQuery - another very good resource with good search feature and an interactive UI .

VBScript to list all Windows Domain in your network

2010-07-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Today when cleaning some old unused folders in my computer, found few VB Scripts which I wrote few years back. I am planning to post them here, regularly. Hope these scripts will be useful for others.

-----

' This vbscript will list all the Windows Domain in the network - using the WinNT namespace

' author email : prathees dot r at gmail dot com

Set nameSpaceObject = GetObject("WinNT:")
For Each domainObject In nameSpaceObject
WScript.Echo domainObject.Name
Next

-----

How to run the script:

1. Copy the above script to a file - say ListDomain.vbs

2. Execute the script using CScript program. Eg:

C:\> CSCRIPT ListDomain.vbs

and this too shall pass...

2010-07-02T04:09:00.000-07:00

30th of June 2010, Wednesday - a day I will never ever forget in my life!!!

Our team got a call from an irate customer, who was angry that his data was missing - yes that was a very serious problem!!! Even before, we finished introducing ourselves in the phone call, he started yelling at us. His tone showed, how frustrated he was. If at all, that was a face-to-face conversation, I fear he would have certainly slapped us.

We promised to resolve the problem and convinced him saying we would give him a call in another 30 minutes, after looking into the log files. We searched this log file, that log file and all possible log files for his session, but nothing helped us.. When all these were happening, we forgot about that 30 minutes timeline - he called us after 45 minutes and the music started again.

Definitely, it was not our day :-(

The problem started at 8 pm IST and went on till the next day morning. The user (though he was from USA) was also awake after his day time - that showed how important that missing data was to him. At regular intervals, we called him or he called us.

Almost after 14 hours, the next day, we some how found the reason of the problem. It wasn't an application bug. It was because of a very silly mistake - both by the user and a usability problem on our side. Thankfully, the user was so kind enough to understand what really happened and also realized what mistake he did. We promised to address that usability in our next update.

and what happened next, was a sweet surprise to us all. He started praising us and promised to recommend our software to his clients :-) We are also happy that we learned, a new way to look into similar problems in the future.

The show started smoothly, had lots of tensions/thrills/pain or what ever you can call them as and finally had a very happy ending. What seemed like an end of life a 10 hours ago, turned out to be a good learning for life time at the end.

and we know even this shall pass by...

Raavanan - Movie review

2010-06-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

First the good things in the movie Raavanan:

1. Beautiful locations!!! Its a wonder, how our film makers missed these places for all these years. The chillness all around the movie, does give a wonderful feeling.

2. The cameraman - Santhosh Sivan. No doubt that Santhosh Sivan is a great cinematographer in our times and this is yet another powerful feather for his cap. His work for Raavanan/Raavan will surely be remembered for a very long time.

3. The actors, especially Vikram and Aishwarya Rai Bachan. Though it looks a bit animated at few places, Vikram is at his best in this movie. Even other actors like Priyamani, Prabhu, Prithviraj have given good performances.

4. Music for the songs. This needs no mention as the songs are already a big hit even before the movie release. This is quite normal for the Manirathnam - ARR combination and I am happy that it worked out even in Raavanan.

and now the bad or the not so good things about Raavanan, to me:

1. Dragging screenplay - As everyone knows the plot is from Raamayanam. The team could have worked a bit more to make the screenplay little more interesting. Except for very few scenes, the first half was rally boring.

2. Missing the tamil nativity - I don't know if I am the only person feeling like this. The location (which they call it as Tirunelveli), the people, the functions they show in the movie everything appeared like an dubbed movie.

3. Childish dialogues!!! You can feel the absence of Sujatha here.

4. Climax - many people might like this climax in the movie. Personally I feel, the scene that comes before the last 10 minutes, would have been the best climax for this movie. (may be Manirathnam wanted to avoid unnecessary controversies)

Overall - a good movie to watch once, if you want to admire the making of the movie.

JakkuBoys!!!

2010-05-27T04:31:00.000-07:00

Though a long movie (20+ minutes), this is a funny short film.

Enjoyment ensured!!!

Jakkuboys - The Movie from Scube Productions on Vimeo.

Get a Random Number!!! [Computer Programmer Joke #4]

2010-05-25T05:16:00.001-07:00

Google and the PAC-MAN's 30th Birthday!!!

2010-05-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Google's Doodles are always interesting.

Today to mark the 30th anniversary of the popular computer game PAC-MAN, they have put an HTML5 based game in their home page.

Rush and play the game, before they remove it tomorrow.

This really deserves a wow!!! After a very long time I am feeling "Google Rocks!!!"

Its a FEATURE!!! [Computer programmer joke #3]

2010-05-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

via : StackOverFlow.com

Computer Programmer Joke #2 : a car accident

2010-05-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

A physicist, an engineer and a programmer were in a car driving over a steep alpine pass when the brakes failed. The car was getting faster and faster, they were struggling to get round the corners and once or twice only the feeble crash barrier saved them from crashing down the side of the mountain. They were sure they were all going to die, when suddenly they spotted an escape lane. They pulled into the escape lane, and came safely to a halt.

The physicist said "We need to model the friction in the brake pads and the resultant temperature rise, see if we can work out why they failed".

The engineer said "I think I've got a few spanners in the back. I'll take a look and see if I can work out what's wrong".

The programmer said "Why don't we get going again and see if it's reproducible?"

from: StackOverFlow.com

Computer Programmer Joke #1

2010-05-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

A man flying in a hot air balloon suddenly realizes he’s lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts to get directions, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

The man below says: "Yes. You're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."

"You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist.

"I do" replies the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but It's of no use to anyone."

The man below replies, "You must work in management."

"I do," replies the balloonist, "But how'd you know?"

"Well", says the man, "you don’t know where you are, or where you’re going, you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now you would blame me"

from : StackOverFlow.com

Indian squad for ICC T20 World Cup

2010-03-26T05:09:00.000-07:00

Members of the Indian Cricket team for the ICC T20 World Cup, that starts on coming April 30, were announced today. No big surprises in the squad. Fast bowler Vinay Kumar from Karnataka is the only new into the team. Spinner Piyush Chawla makes a come-back into the team.

The squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma

Undoubtedly, its the batting form of Virender Sehwag that will decide our position in the tournament. If he gets into his best batting form, well we do have a bright chance to qualify for the semis. (South Africa is the other team in the group)

I am not sure, if Yuvraj Singh had completely cured from his injuries. He really seems to be like a lot rustled in the IPL (or may be he is not happy about his captaincy being removed) I feel Irfan Pathan would have been a better alternative. Also I feel, Misra would have been a better alternative for Chawla.

Considering the care and affection, our Srikanth had shown towards are tamilnadu players, I was afraid if they would pick Ashwin and Balaji for the world cup team. Thanks to their great performances in the recent IPL, this didn't happen.

Well, considering the injuries happening in this IPL, who knows this entire list might change when the IPL gets over. In that case, our Sachin, Dravid and Kumble will be requested to play the international T20.

Even then no Ganguly - for he will not accept the offer :-)

Wikipedia as a Printed Book!!!

2010-03-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

This is how, the Wikipedia would appear, if only its featured articles are published as a printed book!!!

The book has about 5000 pages and contains about 437 featured articles from Wikipedia. The book is about 1 ft and 7 inches in height.

Rob Matthews, a graphic design student from Brighton, made this book in a two weeks time.

Sam Pointon - a Director at the age of six!!!

2010-03-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

Though an old story (Aug 2009), this one is somewhat interesting. You may believe me or not this little boy - Sam Pointon - in the image - aged only six is working as the Director in a Museum.

Sam's father took him to this Train Museum, during a vacation and there somehow Sam came to know about the retirement of the Director of that museum. Knowing that they are looking for a new Director, Sam wrote to the officials requesting them to appoint him in that position.

The officials who were moved by this, then created a new posting - Director of Fun and appointed Sam in that new position. Today Sam Pointon's work is to take care for the fun of children visiting that museum.

Smart Kid!!!

...and this is damn serious!!!!

2010-03-05T02:33:00.000-08:00

There is a popular saying that goes like this "Time heals what a reason cannot". Yes, that's the power of time. But unfortunately, sometimes even some genuine things get lost/forgotten in the same course of time. That is really bad. (Just like how we all have forgotten our super cow-boy hero Ramarajan)

Well, being a common-man, I cannot turn the whole world upside down to save these things. But still today I can record as many good things I can in the internet, for the future generations to search, read, admire and why not even celebrate.

Here is one such attempt to preserve a truth in the history and that truth is - I am a Cricket Player!!!

I know some of you cannot tolerate this. Check the below image to see how I was portrayed in our team's website (for the intra-company cricket tournament)

Still you don't believe me. Just see the below picture to see a sample of how well I bowled on that day.

The batsman, even after trying to play like tennis, couldn't touch the ball with his bat. Don't miss the terror expressions in the runner's and umpire's faces. You believe it or not - the truth is always truth - I am a cricket player... cricket player... cricket player!!!

Well, if you want to know why I didn't bat and just stopped with bowling. Here is the history for that.

Last Decision...

2010-02-19T04:46:00.000-08:00

Got this funny ad as a mail forward today. Life is almost same everywhere :-)

Vinnaithaandi varuvaayaa

2010-02-04T03:58:00.000-08:00

Two things will always be admirable in a Gautham Menon's movies - music and love scenes. His next movie Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa is said to be exclusively made for music and a love story. So, my expectations are high for this movie.

The music composed by A R Rahman, is already a big hit. Interestingly, this time even the Silambarasan - Trisha pair looks wonderful, to me - may be because Simbu is not having the hairstyle he had in "Alai" in which they acted together last time.

with so many good things, I hope the movie will not disappoint us. Eagerly, waiting for the release...

Apple launches iPad

2010-01-28T06:12:00.000-08:00

Here comes another new product from the Apple - Apple iPad.
As it always happen, few are excited about the apple product and few are sad about this iPad not matching to their expectations. It looks like an enlarged iPhone to me and personally, I like the book reader feature.

Few years back, the Apple revolutionized the mobile phone market with their iPhone. Lets see if they can do the same in the tablet computers segment.

How to open the rear doors in Chevrolet Beat???

2010-01-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

Chevrolet Beat - This is the latest small car from Chevrolet in India and below is an exterior image of the car (click on the image for a bigger version)

From the experts verdict, this new small car from Chevrolet, is said to give better engine performance than some of its competitors in this segment. Chevrolet has always been known for simple and stylish interiors and in this car exterior too looks nice - except for one reason.

Where is the back door handle??? Even after examining for the N-th time, I am not able to find hos someone will open the back doors from outsite.

Is there any invisible handle there or should the driver open it from inside or should the passengers get in though the window??? (just like how Karthi gets down a car in the Aayirathil Oruvan movie)

Personally this looks like a crazy innovation to me, but who knows in the future this might become another fashion in cars.

The Doomed Universities!!!

2010-01-21T03:57:00.000-08:00

This week, name of my college came in the news - but for a bad reason!!! The authorities have warned our college (which was only a institute of Science and Technology then) and few other Deemed Universities in the country, that they would lose their Deemed status if they don't ensure the standards.

Hold on... did they mention it as STANDARD!!!

This really sounds very funny to me. I don't know, first of all how did the AICTE (or whatever it is) gave this Deemed status to these institutes??? Is that so when the deemed status was given, these institutes had all those high standards and then failed to maintain the standard after becoming a deemed university.

The entire process itself is interesting. The whole college (even other polytechnic, medical, nursing, etc etc colleges within the same campus) gets a make-over for that one day of drama. Labs gets modernized, if lucky enough new equipments and devices will be bought for these labs or will be leased, play grounds for hostel gets ready in a day, student recreation centers come up in a single night, hostel kitchen gets cleaned after a decade and lot more....

Then the board of members fly from Delhi and inspect all these preparations just for about 30 minutes. They will very well know that these institutes were not even good enough to be run as an engineering college, but still they will fly back, discuss, more discuss and even more discuss to grant this Deemed University status.

I don't know why all of a sudden, the authorities have got some awareness and taken this action now. Whatever it might be, I am happy that at least now it had happened.

One good thing in this whole episode is the decision to allow these universities run as a normal engineering colleges and get affiliated to the Government University in that region. This is good for the students currently studying in these institutes - at least now they will get their degrees from a recognized university.

Aayirathil Oruvan

2010-01-18T02:06:00.000-08:00

I had huge expectations for this Selvaragavan's movie. 1000s and 1000s of people had worked very hard for nearly 2+ years. Songs are already a big hit. Trailer was awesome, but unfortunately the movie doesn't match all these hype that were created. To put it in short - Aayirathil Oruvan fails miserably in the the second half and too much of blood shed all over the film.

The base knot of the movie is really very interesting. Its about the Chozhas who escape to a remote island after they get defeated by the Pandians in a war and live in that remote island for thousands of years, expecting a good message from their homeland - Thanjai (Tanjore).

Everything in the movie was fascinating and entertaining till the three - Karthi, Reema Sen and Andrea reach that remote land. But after that, the movie starts dragging in all possible ways with unnecessary turns and twists.

Its really unfortunate that all the hard work that were put in the second half had gone almost in vain.

Many say Reema Sen and Parthiban were the best in the movie, but my choice was Karthi. This movie is not based on his role and also his role is almost like a comedian, but still he had given his best for the movie. His performance will surely entertain the audience. (He needs to work a little more to avoid the resemblance with Surya in emotional scenes)

I liked Reema Sen's performance in the first half than the latter part and She looked beautiful in those ancient costumes. Andrea doesn't have much to do in the movie, except for cracking the solutions for traps on their way and give a sad expression in the second half. For Parthipan, Yes this is surely one of his best. His expressions were excellent, when he gets happy about all his people returning to their homeland.

The cameraman and the art director seem to have worked more passionately than the director. Their hard work is reflected in each frame. Songs are good - especially the "Thaai thindra mannae" song. "Un melae aasa thaan" is already a big hit. I felt like missing the Yuvan-Selva combo for the background music.

Director Selvaragavan can be appreciated for such a bold attempt and for the different plot but he would have deserved more if they had worked a little more in screenplay for the second half.. Its also another sad sign that his movies are becoming more and more unsuitable for kids and soft hearted people.

ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன்

2010-01-12T22:39:00.000-08:00

இது நாளை வரும் என்று எதிர்ப்பார்க்கப்படுகிற புதிய "ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன்" பற்றி இல்லைங்கோ... நம்ம புரட்சித் தலைவர் நடித்து 1965 ஆம் ஆண்டு வெளிவந்து ஒரு கலக்கு கலக்கிய அந்த "ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன்" பற்றியது....

# பெரும் கடன் தொல்லையால் கஷ்ட்டப்பட்டுக்கொண்டிருந்த பி.ஆர்.பந்துலு, அதில் இருந்து மீள்வதற்க்காக MGR இன் உதவியுடன் இந்தத் திரைப்டத்தினை ஆரம்பித்தார்.

# எனினும் பெரும் பொருட்செலவில் மிகப்பிரமாண்டமாகவே ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன் தயாரிக்கப்பட்டது.

# இது தான் MGR - ஜெயலலிதா இணைந்து நடித்த முதல் திரைப்படம்.

# இது தான், (அந்தக் காலகட்டத்தில்) எம்.எஸ்.விசுவநாதன் - டி.கே.ராமமூர்த்தி இணைந்து இசையமைத்த கடைசி திரைப்படம். பாடல்கள் அனைத்துமே சூப்பர் ஹிட்!!! (பல ஆண்டுகள் இடைவெளிக்குப் பின்னர் இவர்கள் இருவரும் 'எங்கிருந்தோ வந்தான்' எனும் திரைப்படத்தில் இணைந்தனர்)

# அந்த காலகட்டத்திலே இந்தத் திரைப்படத்தின் தொழில்நுட்பங்கள் ஆங்கில திரைப்படங்கள் போல பெரும் வரவேற்பைப் பெற்றது.

# படம் வெளிவந்து பெரும் வெற்றியடைந்து வசுலில் சாதனைப் படைத்தது. இன்றும் கூட மறு-திரையிடலிலும் நல்ல வசுல் செய்கின்றது.

இதற்கு மேலே மொக்கைப்போட மனசு இடம் தரமாட்டேங்கிறது. எனவே அம்புட்டு தான் அந்த ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன் பற்றி. ஒருவேளை இந்த புதிய ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவனுக்கு டிக்கட் கிடைத்தால், அது பற்றியும் ஒரு மொக்கை விரைவிலே :-)

a programming puzzle

2010-01-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon one of my friends came up with this programming puzzle:

To write an algorithm with the minimum no. of executions to calculate the Sum of all natural numbers from 1 to N, that are divisible by 4 or 7 ?

Though the question looked very simple, it was really exciting to find the solution. Here is the pseudo code of what we think as a good solution :

Initialize a=0, b=0, c=0, result=0
Run a loop for i = 1 to (N/28)
a = a + i
Next value of i
Run a loop for i = (N/28)+1 to (N/7)
b = b + i
Next value of i
Run a loop for i = (N/7)+1 to (N/4)
c = c + i
Next value of i
result = (4*(a+b+c)) + (7*(a+b)) - (28*a)

I know there are many other smart solutions for this problem. If you, have one share it in the comments section.

...and the Australian Cricket Team wins!!!

2010-01-05T22:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I am so excited about this win by the Australian Cricket Team. In fact before that fourth innings by Pakistan, I really wanted Pakistan to win this test match. Even with a very low total to defend, the Australian Cricket Team really played excellently to win the Test match by 36 runs!!!

Phew.. once again my prediction had gone wrong.

We may say plenty and plenty of criticisms about the the Australian Team, but when it comes to playing together during tough times - they are the Best!!! Of course, the Pakistan team didn't play with that killing instinct they always show in matches against us. But still, the Best is the Best!!!

..and something even more interesting. I didn't even bother to know the result of the yesterday's India-Sri Lanka ODI @ Bangladesh. If all Test series can go like this, I don't think any modern format of the game can bring down the popularity of test matches - though, the pitches made for only for batting, in our country, can do that.

33-வது புத்தகக் கண்காட்சி 2010, சென்னை

2010-01-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

இந்த ஜனவரி 1 தந்த சில கசப்பான அனுபவத்தால், இரண்டாம் தேதி மந்தமாகவே தொடங்கியது, ஏனோ மனம் எதிலுமே நாட்டம் செலுத்தவில்லை, சரி என்ன செய்யலாம் என்று யோசிக்கையில், நம்ம சென்னையில் நடக்கும் 33வது புத்தகக் கண்காட்சி நினைவுக்கு வந்தது. இதுதான் வாஙக வேண்டும் என்று நான் எந்த பட்டியலும் தயார் செய்யாததால், சரி ஒரு முன்னோட்டமாக சென்று வரல்லாம் என்று கிளம்பினேன்.

கண்காட்சியில், என்னுடைய அனுபவங்கள் சில:

# கண்காட்சி நடைப்பேறும் செயிண்ட் ஜார்ஜ் ஆங்கிலோ இண்டியன் மேல்நிலைப்பள்ளியை நான் அடையும் போது நேரம் சரியாக மதியம் 12 மணி. அன்று விடுமுறை நாள் என்றாலும், அங்கிருந்த கூட்டம் ஏனோ குறைவாகவே இருப்பது போல எனக்குத் தோன்றியது.

# இந்த வருடம், வாயிலில் அலங்காரம் சற்று அதிகமாக இருப்பது போல ஒரு எண்ணம். தொடக்கவிழாவிற்கு கலைஞ்ர் வந்ததால் இருக்கலாம்.

# ஈழம், பிரபாகரன், விடுதலைப்புலிகள் - இவர்களைப்பற்றி எல்லா பதிப்பகமும் புத்தங்கள் போட்டிருப்பர் போல. நிறைய ஸ்டால்கலில் இந்த புத்தகங்களைதாம் கண்களில் படும் இடங்களில் எல்லாம் பார்க்கமுடிந்தன.

# ஆனந்த விகடன் மற்றும் கிழக்குப் பதிவகத்தில் இளம் வாசகர்களின் கூட்டம் அதிகமாகவே தென்பட்டது. விளம்பரங்களில் அதிகமாக செலவு செய்யாமல், நவீன இண்டர்நெட் வசதிகளைக் கொண்டு கிழக்குப் பதிவகத்தின் இத்தகைய வரவேற்பு நிச்சயம ஒரு வெற்றிதான்.

# எழுத்துலகில் சுஜாதா சார் என்றுமே சூப்பார் ஸ்டார் தான். உயிர்மையில் அவருடைய புத்தகங்கள் இருந்த இடத்தில் நல்ல கூட்டம்.

# சில ஸ்டால்களில் விசிறி/ படிக்கட்டுகள் போல புத்தகங்களை அடுக்கி வைத்திருந்தது பார்க்க அழகாக இருந்தது.

# சில பதிவகங்கள் 1 வாஙகினால் 1 இலவசம், 3 வாங்கினால் 2 இலவசம், 6 வாங்கினால் 2 இலவசம் என்று இலவசகங்களைப் பொழிந்துக்கொண்ருந்தனர்.

# குழந்தைகளுக்காக வரைகலைப் புத்தகங்கள், படக்கதைப் புத்தகங்கள் மற்றும் சீடிக்கள் விற்க்கும் ஸ்டால்களிலும் நல்ல கூட்டம். அனால் சில ஸ்டால்கள், தள்ளுபடியில் சட்டை வாஙகும் இடங்களில் சட்டைகளைக் குவித்து வைப்பது போல குழந்தைகள் புத்தகங்களை குவித்து வைத்து இருந்தனர்.

# ஒரு ஸ்டாலில், சிறுவர்களுக்காக அறிவியல் விளையாட்டு பொருட்கள் விற்றுக்கொண்ருத்தனர். பூதக்கண்ணாடி, பழங்கால தொலைநோக்கி என்று பொருட்கள் ஆர்வத்தை தூண்டிண. ஒரு ஸ்டாலில் கிரகணங்களை பார்ககும் கண்ணாடிககளை மட்டும் விற்றுக்கொண்டிருந்தனர்!!!

# சில அழகான இளம்பெண்கள் "இப்படிக்கு சூர்யா" புத்தகத்தில் இருந்த சூர்யாவின் புகைப்படங்களை சத்தம் போட்டே ரசித்துக் கொண்டிருந்தனர். எம்பூட்டூ கிரேஸ் இந்த ஆளூ மேல!!!!

# ஒரு இளம்பெண், "சீக்கிரம்... சீக்கிரம்..." என்று தனது தந்தையை அவசரப்படுத்திக்கொண்டிருந்தார். இந்த மாதிரி இடஙகளுக்கு ஒற்ற பொறுமையுள்ளவர்களையே உடன் அழைத்து வருவது நல்லது. நல்லவேளை நான் தனியாகவே சென்றிருந்தேன்.

# ஆச்சரியமாக, இந்த வருடம், கழிவறைகள் சுத்தமாக இருந்தன. ஒருவேளை அப்பொழுதுதான் கண்காட்சி தொடங்கிய நேரம் என்பதாலும் இருக்கலாம்.

# சில பகுதிகளில் இன்னும் ஸ்டால்கள் அமைக்கும் வேலை நடந்துக்கொண்டிருந்தது. தட்... தட்... தட். என்று தட்டிக்கொண்டிருந்தனர்.

# அரங்கின் உள்ளே வினியோகித்த துண்டுப் பிரசுரங்கள், எல்லா இடங்களிலும் வீசப்பட்டுக்கிடந்தன. எத்தனை ஆயிரம் புத்தகங்கள் படித்தாலும் இந்த விசயத்தில் நாம் திருந்தமாட்டோம் என்று தான் தோன்றுகிறது.

# வெளியே வரும்போது, ஒருவர் கூடையில் வைத்து மசாலா கலந்த வறுத்த கடலை விற்றுக்கொண்டிருந்தார். விலை ரூபாய் ஐந்து. அளவு கொஞசம் குறைவு தான் ஆனால் ருசியாக இருந்தது.

Happy New Year 2010!!!

2009-12-31T03:38:00.000-08:00

Its really hard to believe, today is the last day of this year. Though, I missed few targets that I had planned for this year, the year 2009 had really passed so quickly. 2009 had been another wonderful year in my life - completed 5 years in my job, got more responsibilities to lead a team, had saved more money when compared to what I saved when I was a bachelor, almost near to a long time dream of mine (will update soon), many of my friends got married this year and lot more good things had happened in 2009!!!

Hope the spirit continues, and lot more dreams come true in 2010 for all!!!

Wishing you a Happy New Year - 2010

Thattukada @ the Spencer Plaza, Chennai

2009-12-30T01:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my wife and I were at the Mount Road (near the Spencer Plaza) for some personal works. When our work was over, it was almost time for lunch. Since I didn't know about any good restaurants in that locality, I decided to have our lunch at food court in the Spencer Plaza.

Being a working day, I thought the food court would be less crowded. I was wrong. Even on a Tuesday after-noon, the place was so crowded as if it was a weekend day. After going around and around, we managed to find two seats at the "Thattukada" - that offered kerale food.

Though they operate in a very small space, somehow "Thattukada" appeared to be more spacious than other stalls in the food court - might be because they had well-organized the furnitures or the shop was less crowded than others

Their menu - though wasn't a big list - did have some good combination of Mallu food in it. First I wanted to try the Pittu with kadalai curry, but since it was lunch time we ordered Rice with fish curry and Poricha Kozhi with Chapatis.

I normally don't like the kerala rice, but with that fish curry (made of coconut milk) it tasted good. Vegetable kootu that was offered with the rice was also tasty.

Then coming to the Poricha kozhi with Chapatis , for the first one or two bites it was nice - very spicy and hot. But after that, I started feeling the coconut oil taste/smell and after that finishing that dish seemed like big challenge. The Chapati was also not so soft. Then we ordered for a parota - which was hot, soft and tasty.

In short, Thattukada was not so bad, but could have been a little better.

The Ruchika Girhotra Case - another sad face of our Judiciary

2009-12-28T03:51:00.000-08:00

The sad incident happened in 1990 in Haryana.

A 14 year old girl, Ruchika Girhotra, who was returning from her tennis practice was molested by Shambhu Pratap Singh Rathore who was then the Director General of Police in Haryana.

Though, the girl's parents were bold enough to file a case against the senior police officer and few lawyers helped them to fight against the injustice, our Indian Judiciary needed more than 19 years, 40+ adjournments, 400+ hearings and the little girl's life (unfortunately, Ruchika committed suicide in 1993) to convict Rathore as guilty. But still sentenced him only a 6 months of imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000. Whats more unfortunate is that he was immediately offered a bail from that meager 6 months of imprisonment.

We can be proud about so many good things in our country, but still it is a big shame to know that with power, money and law experts, safety of a girl child can go so cheap in India. Shouldn't such criminals (that too a poloce officer) be punished so severly, so that it can be a lesson for others? With our Judiciary hibernating like this even for a proven crime, this will never happen.

Two movie trailers

2009-12-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

Just happened to watch the trailers of two new tamil movies - "Aayirathil Oruvan" and "Tamizh Padam" (yes this is the title of the movie). From what I have seen in the trailer, both these movies appear to be interesting.

Aayirathil Oruvan

Though, thoughts about the "Mummy returns" and few other english movies, kept flashing in my mind when seeing this movie, I hope Selvaraghavan and his team have worked very hard to give a different genre of movie to the tamil audience.

Tamizh Padam

This also seems like a different genre of movie for the tamil audience. This movie produced by Dhayanidhi Alagiri, is said to be spoof movie making fun of the conventional tamil movies. We have seen this made interesting in TVs (Lollu Sabha) - which nomally runs for less than an hour. I hope they ll get the same feeling in a full length movie.

I know, I have seen many crappy movies, that had fantastic trailers. So I am going to keep my hopes low on these movies.

வேட்டைக்காரன் வந்துட்டான்!!!

2009-12-18T06:16:00.000-08:00

பிடிக்குதோ... இல்லையோ... கடந்த ஒரு வாரமாய் நம்ம ஆளுங்க ரொம்ப ஆர்வமாய் இருந்த ஒரு விசயம் - நம்ம இளைய தளபதி விஜயின், இல்லை.. இல்லை.. சன் பிக்ஸ்ட்சர் கலாநிதி மாறனின் "வேட்டைக்காரன்".

புறக்கனிக்கலாமா? வேண்டாமா? என்று தமிழர்களை வலையுலகில் முட்டி மோத வைத்து, சன் தொலைக்காட்சியிலோ நொடிக்கு பத்து தடவை வந்து குழந்தைகளையும் ரசிகர்களையும் கவர்ந்து (சிலரை நிச்சயம் இம்சித்தும்), இதோ இன்று தமிழக வெள்ளித்திரைகளில் தனது ஓட்டத்தை தொடங்கியுள்ளான் இந்த புதிய வேட்டைக்காரன்!!!

இந்த ஓட்டம் வெற்றி விழா வரை போகுமா.. இல்லை கூடிய சீக்கிரம் திரையரங்குகளை விட்டே ஒடுமா.. என்பதை காலம் தான் பதில் சொல்லனும்...

Chennai boy steals Rs. 8 lakhs from his home to buy a luxury car..

2009-12-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting incident that had happened in Chennai, which I read in a newspaper yesterday:

A young boy, from Chennai, aged only 16 had stolen Rs. 8 lakhs from his own house to buy a luxury car. The family already had 3 cars, but the parents didn't allow their boy to drive the cars, because of his age.

This boy stole Rs. 8 lakhs from the home and with some help from their house driver, he bought a new car, registered in the drivers name. It seems that every day ,after school, this boy along with his girl friends, used to drive his new car all around the city. Then he will park the car at the driver's place and go back to his home.

Whats more funny in this story is that, only after few months the parents realized about some big amount of money missing from their home and sought the help from police. Chennai police, on their investigation, found that the driver had only recently bought a luxurious car. When the driver was treated in the police way, this entire story had come out.

சூப்பர் ஸ்டாருக்கு பிறந்தநாள் வாழ்த்துகள்!!!

2009-12-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

இன்று டிசம்பர் 12. சூப்பர் ஸ்டார் ரஜினிகாந்தின் 60-வது பிறந்தநாள்.

இவரை ஒரு முறையாது நேரில் பார்க்கவேண்டும் என்பது என்னுடைய நீண்ட நாள் ஆசைகளில் ஒன்று. சிலருக்கு இது அல்பமாக கூட இது தெரியலாம். இது ஏன் எதற்கு என்று, எல்லாம் இதுவரை நான் அராய்ந்தது இல்லை. ஏனோ பார்க்க வேண்டும், பழக வேண்டும் என்று ஒரு ஆசை. இன்னும் நிறைவேராத ஒரு ஆசை.

நான் சிறுவனாக இருக்கும் போது இவர் மீதும், இவரது ஸ்டைல் மீதும் உண்டான அந்த பிரமிப்பு இன்று வரை என்னிடம் குறையவே இல்லை.

அது தான் ரஜினிகாந்த்!!!

இந்த பிறந்த நாளைக்கும் தலைவருக்கு நேரில் வாழ்த்து கூற முடியவில்லை. சரி அதனால் என்ன, இங்கேயே சொல்லிடலாம்னு தான் இப்படி ஒரு பதிவு.

அப்படியே எனக்குப் பிடித்த, தலைவரின் டாப் 5 திரைப்படங்களின் பட்டியல்:
1. பாட்ஷா
2. முள்ளும் மலரும்
3. தில்லு முல்லு
4. நெற்றிக்கண்
5. அண்ணாமலை

உங்களுக்குப் பிடித்த தலைவரின் திரைப்படங்களை பின்னூட்டத்தில் சொல்லுங்கள்.

Telangana and Mr. K.Chandrashekar Rao

2009-12-10T01:42:00.000-08:00

For the first time, when I saw an image of this man - Mr. K. Chandrashekar Rao - a very thin figure with a funny ping colored shawl, I never thought this man had so much of determination and will power.

I really don't know if he had used this separate Telangana state issue for popularity in politics or for some real valid reasons, but I am really surprised by the way he continued his protest till the Central Government agreed. In my state, I have only seen politicians doing this fasting protest between their break-fast and lunch.

Now, there is an additional new state in our country, a new chief minister post and 25+ minister posts. Lets hope with such governing body and a small state, Telangana will improve in future as they expect.

also I get few questions in my mind, - Will some Andhra Mess rename themselves as Telangana Mess, now??? Somone please help me.

தமிழில் முதன்முறையாக...

2009-11-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

நெடுநாள்... இல்லை, இல்லை பல வருட ஆசை இது - தமிழில் ஒரு பதிவு தொடங்கவேண்டும் என்று. எப்படி எல்லாம் தாமதம் ஆகலாமோ... அப்படி எல்லாம் தாமதம் ஆகி, அதனையும் தாண்டி தாமதமோ தாமதம் ஆகி, இன்று தான் அந்த ஆசை நிறைவேறப்போகிறது. என்ன ஒன்று புதிதா ஏதும் வலைப்பதிவு தொடங்காமல் ஏற்கனவே இருக்க இந்த http://vettyofficer.blogspot.com வலைமப்பதிவிலேயே எழுதுகிறேன்.

தமிழில் தட்டச்சு செய்யறதுதான், கொஞ்சம் கஷ்டமா இருக்கு... போக போக பழகிடும்னு நினைக்கிறேன்...

அதைவிட முக்கியம், அடுத்து தொடர்ந்து பதிவு போடுவேனாங்கிறது தான்.

போடுவேன்னு தான் இப்போதைக்கு நினைக்கிறேன். இந்த மதிரி சின்ன சின்ன நம்பிக்கை தானே வழ்க்கை!!!

Infosys Narayana Murthy turns VC

2009-10-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

For most of the Indian Entrepreneurs this man is the role-model. He, along with six other friends and some money (which he had borrowed from his wife) founded the Infosys company in 1981.

In the last 25+ years Infosys had grown tremendously to become an IT giant and certainly one of the reasons for India to shine in this IT industry.

Today's news is that Narayana Murthy had sold some part of his shares in the company (worth about US$ 38M) and is planning to fund that money to brilliant Indian Entrepreneurs. His firm has plans to fund start-ups in health-care, education and nutrition.

US$ 38 million is a huge money for India. With that money and his mentoring, I hope the Indian start-up and the whole ecosystem will have a great future.

Restaurants @ Chrompet, Chennai

2009-10-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

Here are my short review of some restaurants at Chrompet, Chennai. These reviews are based on my experience and taste bud.

Anjappar Chettinaad Restaurant
Few good things about Anjappar @ Chrompet are good taste, wide variety of food, fine ambiance, the popular brand name. Then the bad things are heavy crowd, cleanliness not so appealing and their poor service when the group was small.
My rating : 3/5

Kaaraikudi Restaurant / The Dhaba
Kaaraikudi was good two years back, and I don't know what made them go so bad in the recent times. For the not-so-good food they provide, the price is too much. The Dhaba in the first floor is OK when compared to Kaaraikudi in the ground floor.
My rating : 2/5

Nalas Aappakadai
As of today, I feel this is the best of the restaurants at Chrompet. Though their taste is not so great, their good service balance that. Don't miss the wide varieties of appams and Carrot halwa in this restaurant.
My rating : 3.5/5

Caspa Restaurant
I guess this is the only speciality Chinese Restaurant at Chrompet. Well other than that nothing is too special to mention about this. Can be visited once in a while.
My rating : 2.5/5

Hotel Maharaja
This is the oldest of Non-Veg hotels at Chrompet. Today, it stand no where near the new hotels. Need to improve a lot in all aspects to get more business.
My rating : 2/5

Peraanmai - Movie Review

2009-10-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

To describe this movie in one word, I would say - It is Impressive!!!

Though the first half is slightly boring (OK I accept it was really boring), the real movie starts after the interval. From then on the story picks up speed, and with the excellent camera work, editing and awesome forest location, this movie brings in many things, that we have seen in some english movies.

The story is about an efficient forest ranger, coming from a scheduled tribes, who has got his post through the reservation quota and five NCC girls, going into the forest and fighting against few foreign agents, who come inside the same forest with a dangerous motivation.

Jayam Ravi as the forest ranger, has played his part very well. He has worked a lot for this movie - which brings a different Ravi, we have seen in his earlier movie. The five girls in the movie were also impressive. Vadivelu comes then and there. One cannot expect much from him, in a plot like this. That Gigantic Villain was too good to watch for his physique. I guess his food would have cost more than Ravi's salary :-)

Director Jananadhan should also be appreciated for bringing the sufferings of the forest tribes on the screen - though most of the dialogues about them in the first half are censored. As mentioned earlier, the camera and editing are awesome in the movie. The music could have been a little better, or even if it was good it didn't impress me much.

Overall Peranami is a good action movie - without the normal masalas of our tamil cinema.

Kamal 50

2009-10-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

I am back to my blogs after a small break - as usual :-)

Happened to watch the "Kamal 50" program in the Star Vijay TV, yesterday. As usual the Vijay TV had done an excellent work in organizing the event - especially I liked the design of the stage. The only bad thing was, instead of showing ads between the programs, they showed main program between the ads.

The highlight of the program was the Rajini-Kamal friendship. Both of them have spoken about this thousands and thousand times before, but still, it wasn't boring yesterday.

From the decades wise videos that were shown in the program, I think the years 1980-89 should be the golden period of his career. He was successful in both the Masala and Class movies - Moonram Pirai, Nayagan, Sathya, Abboorva Sagodharargal, Sagalakala Vallavan, Kadhal Parisu, Kaakichattai and lot more.

There might be many controversies about him, but undoubtedly Kamal Haasan is one of the finest actors I have watched. In future I hope he gets us more wonderful movies to watch.

Surya, Jyothika and the new Aircel Ad

2009-09-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

This is the latest Aircel video ad, in which Surya and Jyothika come together in screen, after a very long time. The print banner of this campaign are already put up at various locations in the city.

Even with the most popular couple in the town, this ad seems to be missing something when compared with the Airtel's ad having Madhavan and Vidya Balan.

What do you feel?

Surya in SINGAM

2009-09-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

The shoot for Surya's next movie "Aadhavan" directed by K.S.Ravikumar is almost complete and the actor has started to work in his next-to-next movie "Singam" to be directed by the director Hari.

Singam will be Surya's 25th movie and also his third movie under Hari's direction. Anushka will be the heroine of the movie.

The punch lines seen in the promotional posters of this movie are really funny. I think for the first time, I am seeing this for a Surya's movie.

Here are some of them (with QuickGun Murugan style english translation) :

Kalam Thedi Kalangadikum.. - Battle field searching and then attacking..
Paarvayilae Padharavaikum.. - Can make one fear just by seeing..
Naalu Kaalu Paichalilae.. - In four legs leap
Puyal, Mazhai, Kattrai... - Storm, Rain, Wind..
Kaatu Raja, Naatuku... - King of Jungle, For Country (!?!?!)
Oru adi = 1/2 Ton Power.. - One Hit = 1/2 Ton power (why only 1/2 ton say 10 tons man!!)

Don't know why they left out the popular punch in tamil cinema - "Naalaiya Mudhalvarae.."

Dairy Milk Vs Nestle Munch : Ad War

2009-08-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

Fighting with advertisements is not new in the Indian consumer market. First we saw two cola companies making ads against each others, then came two hot beverage products doing this and now its the turn for the chocolates - Dairy Milk vs Nestle Munch.

First the Dairy Milk came with their campaign - Celebrate Month's 1st day with Dariy Milk.

and for the above advertisement Nestle Munch have come up with this reply punch - One can eat Munch even on 2nd, 3rd and everyday of a month

So What's next? Tomorrow Dairy Milk will surely come up with another reply to this Munch and when this cycles continues, its the real good time for those two ad agencies!!!

Personally, I like the Nestle Munch ad - Very short and nice one when compared to the lengthy (though not-so-bad) Dairy Milk ad.

Interesting Entrepreneur: Rajeev Kher

2009-08-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Rajeev Kher is a little different from the other Entrepreneurs from India. After completing his Masters in Business studies, when he wanted to start his own business he didn't choose any of the modern trendy technical ones. Instead he chose the Mobile Toilet Business!!!

After completing his studies, Kher was not able to convince the banks with his idea of Mobile Toilets business. So with the little fund from his father, who was a former army officer, Kher started his compnay - the Sharmik Sanitations Systems (3S) in Pune, with vision to sell, lease and market portable toilet units in India.

After the initial struggles to get customers, today they have installed about 1000 portable toilet cabins across the country. They also provide the utility services to clean the wastes at regular intervals.

In a country where thousands of little kids die of diarrhea and most of the people still defecate in the open, Kher's idea might not solve the problem completely but surely gives some hope of things getting better - especially in events like public exhibitions, pilgrimages, construction sites, etc.

Kandhasamy

2009-08-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer : This post may spoil the real thrill/fun in the movie, if you want to enjoy the movie, kindly skip this post.

Plot summary :

Hero Kandhasamy works in a chicken stall and lives with his friends and family.

The heroine who is a VJ in some local cable channel, comes to his chicken stall to buy some chicken for cooking. As per the thumb rules of tamil cinema the meeting develops into love.

In the same town there is the villain who runs many educational institutes, and also does all possible illegal business. No one in the town is bold enough to stop the villain.

When everything seems to be like moving smoothly in the hero's life, there comes a big twist when he gets bitten by a big fat cock in his stall. After this he becomes a Chicken-Man (just like the Spiderman) with all possible super-heroism.

With this super-hero power, our hero punishes the bad fellows and bring happyness in the town.

PS :

1. With my little knowledge about the tamil cinema and the promotional pictures of Kandhasamy, I have guessed this plot.
2. With this team - Vikram, Susi Ganesan, Thotta Dharani and Producer Dhaanu - I think this movie will meet its expectation.

The Madras Day - August 22, 2009

2009-08-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a small piece of history about our city and the Madras Day.

On August 22, 1639 an important deal was made between the Britishers and the Local Nayak rulers. According to that agreement a small piece of land was given to the English East India Company and that piece of land is where the Fort. St. George stands today.

It all started from that small piece of land. Settlements started growing around the Fort, the small villages around the place were combined, then towns came and thus finally came our Madras City.

In the year 2004, a small group of people, launched a uique idea to celebrate the city's birthday - they chose the day on which the above treaty is believed to be made and called it as the Madras Day. Then onwards the Madras Day is celebrated on the 22nd of August every year.

The Madras Day focus on the city, its history and glories. As a part of the celebrations several rallies, talk events, contests, photo exhibitions, food fests and lot more are being conducted in the city.

This year, to increase the community participation, the Madras Day is beeing extended for a week - calling it the Madras Week. In 2009, the Madras Week will be celebrated from August 16 to 23 and as always plenty of events and contests are to happen across the city for this full week.

I have been in this city for nearly 10 years and Chennai is like a second native to me - ofcourse now it is also the Pugundha Veedu to me :-)

Chennai might not be the best among the Indian cities, Chennai still has many of the worst problems but for sure the city has many things to celebrate about and events like this will surely create an awareness about the City's pride and give a great feeling for the Chennaites.

Happy Madras Week!!!

Pokisham - Movie Review

2009-08-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

In short - this movie has nothing to treasure.

The songs are good. Padmapriya has acted well in her role. As a director Cheran has done some reasonable work giving importance to even the simplest thing on the screen but still the movie lacks its lifeline - a good story and proper screenplay.

The hero writes a letter to the heroine. Heroine reads that letter. She then write a reply to the hero. This time hero reads the contents of this reply to the audience. Then he writes a reply for that reply letter and this repeates in the while(true) loop :-(

Director Cheran would have wanted to recreate a hit like Autograph, but this movie comes nowhere close to that movie.

The Hindu gets a new makeover

2009-08-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

English newspaper "The Hindu" have changed their website layout. The beta version of this is available @ beta.thehindu.com

They should have done this earlier. Their current design looks very cluttered to me.

Though this new layout is very much similar to the Times of India site, I like the new design for its simplicity and it is less cluttered. Hope they don't spoil this in future by adding in more ads.

My favorite game is the #1 Facebook game!!!

2009-08-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

During my college days I was almost an addict towards PC games. Most part of my life then was spent in playing Age of Empires, GTA and Cricket. After college, as I started getting older, I somehow lost my interests towards these games.

In the last two years I don't remember if I had played the minesweeper game in my office computer, even once. I would have denied atl east 100s of Mafia War game invitation in the Facebook. But all these resistance were only till I accepted one invitation for the FarmVille game in the same Facebook.

The concept of Game is really crazy. No Guns.. No Shooting.. No brain-breaking strategies.. Nothing fancy but still the game is interesting (at least to me). One will have to cultivate and harvest in the small piece of land and in that process also help the friends like gifting animals to them, cutting weeds and chasing crows in their farm.

and according to this report, this Game FarmVille is the #1 Facebook game for August. Interestingly another cultivation related game Farm Town is also in the top 5 list.

Good to see many people liking agriculture... We are all Modern Vivasayees (farmers) in this Internet era :-)

Newsmakers for the week....

2009-07-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Few people who made some interesting news for this week...

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab

This lonely attacker to be captured alive by police in the Mumbai 16/11 attack, was back in news after sometimes.

Everyone of us had seen footages of this guy mercilessly shooting the innocent people in the CST. Our Government claimed to have produced some powerful evidence to our Neighbouring country, about his nationality, but again for this trial, more than 200 witnesses are to be examined by the prosecution.

Hmm still.. the trial will continue till we get more powerful evidences to prove that Kasab is a Pakitan-born Terrorist.

---------

Erin Andrews

In short, this story is the Foreign version of a tamil actress video tape that made news in the internet few years back. Somehow a video clipping of this popular ESPN Sports reporter came into the internet, and subsequently she became one of the mostly searched celebrity in the net - Men are same everywhere :-)

Another interesting part of this story is - few hackers used this incident to spread harmful videos that had virus to infect the user's computers.

---------

Dr. A P J ABDUL Kalam

I don't think Abdul Kalam himself would have worried so much about the frisking incident. Our politicians argued for atleast more than two days about this incident in our parliament. The story comes to an end with four officers being booked and then the Airlines apologising fo this incident.

A simple change in Kalam could have avoided this incident.

Today, even an Ex-Circle or Ex-Sub-Circle move around with atleast 4 gundas and 10 supporters. Our former president should have also gone with similar crowd, so that the airlines officers would have known he is a celebrity in India.

---------

Dr. M Karunanidhi

I didn't know our CM is the only Chief Minister in our country, who don't live in a luxurious bunglow - until he said that himself in a function yesterday. Anyways nothing wrong to say that when no one else have recognized it.

To add more suprises our CM have donated this little house that worths about Rs. 8 crore to the general public after his death. It will be converted into an Hospital for the poor.

Only time can tell the real meaning of whom he mentioned as poor.

Vibram FiveFingers Shoes

2009-07-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

The very first thoughts in my mind, on seeing the foot-wears in the above image was - "weird. crazy.. and funny..."

But I was really surprised to know that these Vibram FiveFingers shoes are a super-hit in the US. Interestingly this shoe was selected as one of The Best Innovations of the Year 2007 by the Times Magazine.

According to their website, unlike other conventional shoes, these FiveFingers shoes stimulate every muscles in the feet and lower legs thus providing extra strength to the legs. Few more things to add:

Vibram FiveFingers shoes come in four models - Classic, Sprint, KSO, Flow. Each specifically designed for various tasks like Light Trekking, Running, Yoga, etc.
They come in a price range of US $75 to $85. Size for men 40-47 and women 36-42.
The shoes are made of a thin, abrasion-resistant stretchable fabric.
Vibram FiveFingers shoes are machine washable.

Who knows in future, just like so many other fashion items from US, even these shoes will also become popular in India and nothing wrong if that happens, if these shoes can really provide the extra comfort and strength.

and for that one single feature - Machine Washable - I no more feel this design in funny :-)

Cost of a cigarettes pack is $23,148,855,308,184,500 !!!

2009-07-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

This incident is really funny!!! Here is the summary of the incident...

Josh Muszynski, from New Hampshire bought a pack of cigarettes in a store using his credit card. A few hours later, back at home, when he checked his online bank account, he was shocked to see the amount that was charged for that single pack of cigarettes. $23,148,855,308,184,500 was charged for that.

Yes 23 Quadrillion Dollars!!!!

Göran Andersson, a member of stackoverflow.com, seemed to have cracked this bug.

According to him, this huge value when converted into cents becomes 2314885530818450000 and then again when converted to Hexadecimal becomes 2020 2020 2020 1250.

"20" is the code for space in Hexadecimal which means 6 white spaces before the actual cost have caused this error.

I don't know if the cost of a pack of cigarettesin New Hampshire is $46.88 but if Göran is right, then one fact is sure - Developing silly bugs is a Universal pattern!!!

New Operating System from Google : Google's Chrome OS for Netbooks.

2009-07-08T06:43:00.000-07:00

One or two years back there were rumors about Google working on an Operating System. Well it is no more a rumor now.

Today the Google Team have made a post in their official blog about Google's new operating system called Google Chrome OS designed exclusively for the Netbooks and Internet experience.

Few points from that post:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system
This operating system will be initially targeted at netbooks (so that means they have plans for complete version of PC OS - direct competition with Microsoft!!!)
This Operating System will be available to customers in the second half of 2010.
Speed, Simplicity and Security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS' design.

Here is the link to the blog post by Sundar Pichai of Google Team.

Netbooks seems to have gained some good popularity in the recent times. Though Microsoft claims that about 96% of the Netbooks run on Windows - their Windows Vista is of no use to these devices that have very low resource profile. Windows 7 was expected to offer better experience in Netbooks. It is interesting as Google is also planning to launch its new OS during the same time.

If Google coule bring the easy-to-use feeling of Windows into their new Open source OS- I will be happy!!!

Short film - SIGNS

2009-05-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

Very Cute short film.

Google [Success Stories -1]

2009-05-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

I m planning to write about some of the successful ventures and starting with the story of Google.

How it started...
The founders of Google didn't intend to create a search engine, when they started. In the year 1995, two Ph.D students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, decided to work on someting interesting for their Ph.D research project. They worked on understanding the Mathematical properties of the links in the world wide web pages. They designed an efficient web crawler and a page rank algorithm for this project.

When analyzing the results of their research product, it occured to them that a search engine based on this Page Ranking algorithm would give better results when compared to some of the search techniques that were available then.

Thus the research project evolved into a Web Search Engine. They named their company as Google Inc.

Initially they ran this new search engine under their university domain and on September 4, 1998 they started the company Google Inc in a friend's garage.

Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin

The First break
By the end of 1998, their crawler had crawled about 60 million pages but at that time there were several other popular search engines like Yahoo, Hotbot, Excite.com, Lycos etc. The same year, an article in Salon.com praised Google's search results were better than its competitors. This feeling spread, and that time period was the beginning of the dot-com bubble and Google's this search technique was seen as the future of the Web search. The rest is history!!!

Google's Home page in 1998

Google's Revenue and Growth...
as Google Search became more and more popular among the users, they introduced sponsored ads in their search results. These advertisements based upon the keywords turned out to be the treasure for Google as it constitute major portion of their revenue.

During early 2000s when many other dot-com companies were suffering to generate cash flow, Google was growing in both popularity and revenue.

The company went public on August 19, 2004 giving Google a market value of about US$23 billion.

Today's stature
They didn't stop with the search engine. They acquired Blogger (a web blog hosting company). Then they came with GMail, collaborative service named Google Docs and Spreadsheets and lot more.

Today the brand Google is one among the very few popular software companies in the world. They have achieved this in just 10 years.

Lesson for start-ups :
# Google efficiently solved a problem of the Internet users and had a powerful business model on that.
# Google was not the first to invent the web Search Engine but they were the best in that.

if you have any points/facts to add, please feel free to post them as comments. I will add them to the post.

Google Suggestion and Bill Gates Daughter

2009-05-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Today, to search some information I was typing "Bill Gates" in the Google's text box, and the moment I typed the character 's', Google suggestions were shown in which the first option was "Bill Gates Daughter" that had more than 1.4 million results!!!!
This is intereting. Gate's daughter seems to be more popular than Gates foundation ,history, biography and everything associated with him ;-)

Most interesting part is that this popular daugher of Bill Gates is not his real daughter. One or two years back, the girl in the below image was rumored to be the Gates daughter. There were plenty of mail forwards with these images.

ahh... now you must be knowing why Gates Daughter (this rumored daughter) is more popular than him.

100 Great Personalities in one Painting

2009-05-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

Found this great picture in Anand Nataraj's blog. There are more than 100 world known Great Personalities in this one painting. Amazing work by the artist. (Click on the image to view the clear image)

I was able to find very few in this picture.

Lenin
Bill Gates
Pele
Adolf Hitler
Charlie Chaplin
Vladimir Putin
Saddam Hussein
Bill Clinton
Einstein
Shakespeare
Winston Churchill
Bruce lee
Abraham Lincoln
Mahatma Gandhi
Che Guevara
Fidel Castro
Marlon Brando
Yassar Arafat
George W Bush
Prince Charles
Mother Theresa
Aristotle
Michael Jordan
Mike Tyson
Osama Bin Laden
Jackie Chan

so this means I am about 25% informed!!!
Not Bad [:-)]

Chennai traffic and Pollution

2009-05-26T05:45:00.001-07:00

Every time when I drive in Chennai, I see at least one out of ten vehicles emitting too much of smoke. Most of these vehicles just look like the popular Kosu Marundhu Vandi (Mosquito Fog Truck)

We all talk about the health problems because of smoking in public places but no one seems to be bothered about the equally dangerous hazards with this vehicle smoke.

Its really sad to see even the vehicles that are used for commercial purpose (autos, sumos, taxis), in such bad conditions. Their owners should be kicked off. They earn all their bread and butter from these vehicles, but still they don't bother anything about the vehicle (and the environment).

This is yet another problem, where the public should realize their responsibilities.

How the Vodafone ZooZoo ads were made? - Behind Scenes Videos...

2009-05-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

I knew the ZooZoo characters in the recent Vodafone ads were not animated ones, but are real human beings wrapped in that white costume. Below is one of the behind-scenes video (Chhota Credit) on how the ad was made.

There are few more videos available in the YouTube site.

few reasons why IPL 2 is not that exciting..

2009-05-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Few matches in this IPL 2 , were really interesting, with all the thrills of a T20 match.
Few big runs scored... Plenty of big sixes hit... some good catches taken.. and lot more...

but still I find this IPL 2, not that exciting for following reasons:

not being played in India
bad weather conditions during the starting of the tournament
the strategy break
Dugout Interviews - just when something exciting happens at the pitch
DLF maximum and Citi moments of success - too much of jun-gu-cha for the sponsors
Mandhira
Ranjit Fernando
Rameez Raja

few things you will have to know about Gratuity...

2009-05-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

What is Gratuity?

This is the cash amount given by the Employers to its resigning/retiring employees who had served their organizations for more than 5 years time. This is something like a cash reward from the employers to its loyal employees.

In early days, only few generous organizations gave gratuity to its employees, but later the Government made this mandatory (the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972) for all employers with more than 10 employees.

When will you be eligible for the Gratuity?

Only those who are hired on company payroll as Employees and have worked for more than 5 years will be eligible for this Gratuity amount. It is to be noted that the training period (if any before the allotment letter) will not be considered for the service period.
It is always better to discuss this with the concerned persons, when joining an organization.

What will be the gratuity amount?

Gratuity amount will be calculated based on the daily salary (Basic+All Allowances) during the time of retirement/resignation. As per the Government act, Gratuity amount is the 15 days daily salary multiplied by the number of years worked in that organization.

Assume your monthly salary is 25,000/- per month and your company normally has 25 working days/month, which makes the daily salary to be Rs. 1000/-. Hence after 5 years of service, the graduity amount would be 1000 x 15 x 5 = Rs.75000/-

Will there be any tax on this gratuity amount?

For employees working for private organizations, the gratuity amount up to Rs.350000/- is free from tax. However for Government employees this limit does not exist - i,e. any amount is non-taxable.

The New Google Chrome TV ad...

2009-05-11T22:50:00.000-07:00

This is the new TV advertising campaign from Google to promote its web browser - Google Chrome. This ad is being shown across some parts of the US

Google Chrome made some impact when it was launched, but after that I feel it had failed to some extent to its competitors like Internet Explorer and Firefox. I think for this reason, Google have got into this traditional advertising - which they had avoided for many years.

According to the Google team, this ad was made as a fun project by the Google Japan team but was later planned to be used for TV ads.

The ad looks nice!!

The Vodafone ads - ZooZoos

2009-05-07T04:57:00.000-07:00

For the first time, when I saw one of these Vodafone Ads (all family members screams on seeing the mother trying some beauty tips) I was so irritated. I thought last year, during the IPL, Vodafone had good ads - i,e the small dog pug running behind a small girl.

but the next few ads featuring these white funny egg-like-head shaped cartoon characters, were really attractive. These characters are named "ZooZoos" - good name indeed.

These ZooZoos characters and the ads are created by O&M Ad agency for Vodafone, to create some awareness about some of the value-added services offered by the phone company. According to the ad company, they have planned to launch one ad everyday during the IPL season 2.

The most interesting part in this ad is that these ZooZoos characters are not animated characters!!! They are real human beings (mostly thin women) dressed up in white dress stuffed with foam.

once again, Vodafone have made some catchy advertisements!

IPL 2009

2009-05-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

IPL 2009 have reached the interesting phase. One single win take a team to the top slot and one loss take another team to the second half of the poits table. Hope the tournament gets more interesting in the coming days.

When every teams are trying their best to rech the semi-finals, its very sad that Kolkata Knight Riders are almost out of the tournament. They do have some of the best players in the game, but unfortunately it didn't click for them this time too.

News say that the Kolkatta Knight Riders' coach wants more than 4 players in his playing 11. If this is true - can someone please tell him that this is suppose to be Indian Premier League!!!

Even if the KKKR team have missed to make some mark this year, this blogger who calls himself as a fake IPL player from the KKKR team, have certainly made his precense felt in the blog space.

Here are some the best from his latest blog

While our fielding coach was busy browsing naukri.com....

I am waiting for the day Bhookha blames global warming for our performance.

We wake up, go to the ground, get bashed around, return, go to sleep, wake up, fly into another city, get bashed around again, go to sleep... and the sequence continues.

very funny!!!

SRK's good gesture

2009-05-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

First of all, I don't know why only in mumbai the voting marks are kept in the middle finger.

and almost every celebrities who came out of the voting booths, showed their middle finger - which also gives some other meaning.

However there was one exception, Our King Khan SRK. Instead of showing the middle finger, he showed the entire hand to the photographers.

...and when his team is losing in IPL at South Africa, this is a real good show from SRK!!!

How to run PostgreSQL under an administrator account in windows?

2009-05-01T03:23:00.000-07:00

Earlier PostgreSQL will not run under any administrator account in Windows computer for some security reasons. However after 8.2 release it is possible to start the database under any administrator account as follows:

1. Open a command prompt and go to PostgreSQL_Home\Bin folder.

2. Execute the below command to initialize the database

initdb.exe -D PostgreSQL_Home\data

3. Execute the below command to start the database server

"pg_ctl.exe" start -D " PostgreSQL_Home\data"

Now the PostgreSQL server will start, even when the currently logged in user is an adminsitrator.

However now I am seeing nearly five instances of Postgress.exe in my task manager - well another problem to solve for tomorrow :-)

One habit that Sehwag should change immediately

2009-04-30T04:59:00.000-07:00

No doubt that he is one of the best players in the Indian Cricket team today. He has been instrumental in many wins in the recent times. I like to watch him batting, but still there is something I don't like in this guy.

Every time when he is shown in close-ups, while fielding, Sehwag very frequently keeps spitting on the play ground. I wonder if he will does the same thing, inside his home.

Unfortunately spitting in public places is not an offcence in India, and thats the reason we see many idiots doing that inside the buses, inside the trains, inside the cinema halls, on the roads and everywhere.

Oh God, please make this guys realize their mistakes.

hopes for change....

2009-04-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

Normal food became Fast Food!
5 days long cricket matches changed to ODIs and then to T20s!!!
Lengthy mails changed to SMSes

Almost everything have changed (in fact shortened) for the comfort of people.

In this line, the next big change that I want is shortened tamil movies.

In the recent times, almost all the movies that I watched, was worth to watch only for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. There was stuff only for that duration. For the remaining parts, the directors really didn't know what to show and it was absolute mokkai.

It will really be good to the audience if these people break the normal 2 1/2 hours rule and make some real good movies with the little good things they have.

Lets hope for the change..

Kingfisher!!!

2009-03-06T01:58:00.000-08:00

When our politicians, who never worried about our Mahatma Gandhi's Philosophies, were screaming without any use about the auctioning of Mahatma Gandhi's belongings, Vijay Mallya, the owner of Kingfisher beer have bought those items for nearly US$ 2 millions.

Now Our Gandhi's glasses, sandals and a pocket watch will come to India - where it really belongs to.

Now the Kudimagangal [:-)] in the country can raise their collars!!!

.... the Oscar award goes to A.R.Rahman

2009-02-23T02:39:00.001-08:00

Just yesterday when speaking with my friends, I was saying them that the Indian news channels are creating too much of hype about the Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar Nominations - especially for the AR Rahman.

I had a feeling that AR Rahman's compositions in Slumdog Millionire were not really his best. My choice of his best are Bombay (Bambaai), Minsara Kanavu and few other movies. Till the last night, I doubted if he will really get the Oscars for SDM.

but today when I heard that he has won two Oscar Awards - I m really excited!!! I m excited as if I have won those awards.

Jaiii... Hooo...

well now does that mean Slumdog Millionire is the best of ARR??

No, its only that he must have got it long time back

Congradulations to the "Smile Pinky" team which also won the Oscars in the Best Documentary Film category.

TN-07-AL-4777 @ தநா-07-அல-4777

2009-02-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

TN 07 AL 4777 is the remake of the hindi hit movie Taxi No. 9211. Kudos to the Director for presenting a Hindi movie in its best form and suiting the Tamil movie audiences.

If you like racy narration of story, then you will like this movie. The story is very simple and its the presentation of the movie that makes this a special one.

The story is about two persons - whose characteristics and life style are straight opposite each other and the incidents that follow when they meet each other, one day.

Pasupathy and Ajmal have done justice to their roles. Ajmal looks very smart in this movie and perfectly fit that rich man character. Simran comes as Pasupathy's pair and gives a good performance in the climax. All the three have performed damn well in the climax.

Meenakshi, who had earlier acted in Karupanasaamy Kuthagaikarar, comes as Ajmal's pair in this movie. I think after that homely girl character in her previous movie, she didn't get many movies to act, so she tries a glamour role in this movie.

The music in the movie could have been a little better- or may be I was hearing the songs for the first time. I personally feel a small and racy movie like this doesn't need any song.

Overall it was a good movie to watch and worth the ticket money.

That Crazy thing called MONEY!!!!

2009-02-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Everytime when I have little money in excess, I will never find one single way to spend that usefully.

and on another day when there is some real useful and urgent need for money, that crazy idiot will not be in hand.

well to be really honest, its not the money that is crazy. Its me who is really really crazy when it comes to money management.

Hope I get better in future!!!
Nambikai Thaan epavumae Vazhkai [:-)]

Special Thanks to all my Friends, who were able to help me, even during such month ends.

image from : http://www.flickr.com/photos/mybigtrip/2954904100/

Symptoms of Poor Planning

2009-01-21T04:45:00.001-08:00

Symptoms of software development with poor planning :

1. You ll have hardly one week for the code freeze but still 3/4th of the Do To list are yet to be started.
2. Even after working for several hours nothing seems to be like working.
3. Your family members say you are not spending enough time with them.
4. Even the most friendly Boss will start his Coo-Coo status update queries.

Right from my childhood I have this problem. Be it an examination or the last day for submitting the assignments or the project deadline, I always suffer at the last minute.

Learn from the mistakes of others; You won't live long enough to make them all.

@pratheeswaran

How to Truncate Windows file to zero Size?

2009-01-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

Deleting (or) Truncating a Windows File to zero size (especially when the file is in use) is not an easy task in Windows. One will have to close the application (which is using the file), modify the file and then restart the application again.

Just to make this boring task simpler, I have written a c program that will truncate windows file to zero size, even if the file is being used by some other application.

Nothing complex in this code, I have used the "_O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC" options to open the file, which will set the file size to zero.

The absolute path of the File, should be given as the argument to the program.


#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    if(argc>1)
    {
         int fileHandler;
         fileHandler = _open( argv[1], _O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC );
         if( fileHandler == -1 )
         {
              printf( "\nOPERATION FAILED\n" );
         }
         else
         {
              printf( "\nOPERATION SUCCESS\n" );
              _close( fileHandler );
         }
    }
}

PriceWaterHouseCoopers???

2009-01-08T06:15:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were "Big Five" accounting firms. Arthur Andersen was one among them. Others in the list were Price WaterHouse Coopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

Them when the Enron scandal broke in the year 2001, this Arthur Andersen firm, who were auditing Enron's accounts then, was found guilty of the financial scandal. Later they voluntarily surrendered their CA license and went out of business. Thus the number was brought down as "Big Four"

Now after the Ramalinga Raju's confession and the Satyam Computers scam, the Price WaterHouse Coopers who are auditing Satyam's accounts, are under the same threat. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has already issued a show cause notice to the accounting firm. If proved (whats more to get proved!??) PwC will have to face the same fate as Arthur Canon.

Though the accounting firm says Satyam auditing was done with regular Auditing Standards and were supported with appropriate audit evidences, I personally feel, atleast few people in the PwC must have been aware of this fraud.

Its really sad to see how a mistake (ofcourse a big mistake) by very few people, can bring down the reputation.

A lesson for everyone...

Ramalinga Raju and The Satyam Scam

2009-01-07T04:15:00.001-08:00

Today's sensational news in the Indian IT industry and the Indian Share market is the resignation of Ramalinga Raju from the Chairman post of Satyam Computers.

The Satyam shares which were already going down (after the World Bank ban), fell tremendously after this news. The price of a share in the morning was about Rs. 180/- and in the evening its just above Rs 35/-

In his resignation letter to the board, Ramalinga Raju had admitted that the Satyam's balance sheets was inflated to Rs. 5040 crores, which was actually very less.

The letter says, how all the attempts to fill this fictitious assets with real ones failed and then comes the punch line - According to Raju, none of the other Board Members had the knowledge of the real situation.

Poor Raju. In every board, whenever a problem comes, there will be one scape goat and in this issue, its Ramalinga Raju. Even without any SEBI/CBI interrogation, Raju have come out himself, admitting his faults - (though there was no other gentleman option for him). Not many in our country have this courage. In that aspect, Raju is a gentle man.

If at all that Maytas acquisition had happened smoothly, Satyam wouldn't be in this bad condition.

by the way, I can surely tell Satyam is not the only company with this problem. If SEBI audits all company's books - there will be many more Satyams. Even bigger ones might exist.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

2008-12-31T02:25:00.001-08:00

Almost at the end of a fantastic year. This year 2008 was great in many aspects.

Eagerly waiting for the fun, joy, challenges and lot more in the new year.

Wishing all a Happy New Year 2009!!!

Andhra meals...

2008-12-29T05:35:00.000-08:00

As Chiranjeevi's new political party "Praja Rajyam" is gaining popularity across the state, and as more politicians from other parties, especially from TDP are joining his party, Chandra Babu Naidu, the leader of TDP didn't have any other option than requesting his brother-in-law and the popular actor Balakrishna @ Balaiah to campaign for his party.

At a time when TDP was facing some downturn, Baliah's active involvement into the politics, did bring some boost to the party men. Balakrishna was also instrumental in bringing in some independant MLA's into the party and moreover, retaining few leaders who were suspected to jump ships.

Chandra Babu Naidu should have been so happy until this twist happened...

According to the media reports, in a recent interview, our Baliah have told the media "If people wish to see me as Chief Minister, I will become Chief Minister"

Jai Jandakeshwara... Plz help Naidu....

Ross Island @ the Andamans and few Thathuvams...

2008-12-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

On day two of our trip to the Andaman Islands, we went to this tiny island called Ross Island, which was just few kilometers away from the Port Blair.

In short the history of the island goes like this - During the British rule, this island was like the administrative capital of the Andaman Island. The British had all their offices, church, hospitals and residents constructed in this Island.

Then during the second world war, the island was attacked by the Japanese, who later took control of the island for next few years. After the world war, again the Ross Island came under the British control.

Then there was a big earthquake in the island - ruining all the buildings in the island. Today only the ruins of these buildings could be seen in the island. The damaged Church in this island have already come in many tamil movie songs (Uyirin Uyirae in Kakka Kakka)

What was more interesting to me were - the trees that had grown over the ruined buildings. The roots of these trees could be seen spreading all over the walls of the ruined buildings.

We grabbed the island from the nature and fought among ourselves to control it, but finally the Nature itself is taking the control over its property.

Idhan vazhkai...

Paasathuku Kannu illae...

2008-12-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening, suddenly my mother told me that I have gone thin in the recent times and surprisingly my better half was nodding her head to accept what my mother had said.

but the truth is that, the trousers that were correctly fitting me, one month ago, are very tight now. I hope they weren't making fun of me.

Shyaam in Ungalil yaar adutha Prabu Deva!!!

2008-12-22T01:44:00.001-08:00

I was watching this program - "Ungalil yaar adhutha Prabhu Deva" in Vijay TV, this weekend. Again this is another reality dance show and this time Vijay TV is searching for the replacement(!!!) for Prabhu Deva.

Not only the title was funny, their choice of Actor Shyam as one of the judges for this show is more ridiculous. It is not that this guy should come as a judge for any reality show. The way he was giving his judgment was so irritating.

For no reasons, the great dancer inside Shyaam was shouting at every contestants. I don't know if this guy will perform better if given the same one week time and the same practice.

I think the TV channel would have asked him to make at least two people cry for every week - so that they can show those footage and increase the TRPs.

After seeing this guy as the judge, now I feel our Namitha was far better as the judge :-)

Some years back there was a singing competition in Jaya TV in which singer SPB was the judge. SPB was fantastic for that job.

Why Endhiran was sold to the Sun Pictures???

2008-12-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

I think their latest venture "Aegan", have made the Ayngaran Movies run out of money. and also another tsunami called "Villu" is approaching them :-)

That could some of the reasons why they sold the production rights of the Rajinikanth starrer "Endhiran" to the Sun Pictures. Endhiran is a Sun Pictures movie now!!!

On seeing how the Sun TV made their duppa movie "Thenavattu", run successfully, I think "Endhiran" will surely become a super hit and it will rank 1st in their countdown for atleast 6 months.

image from : Wikipedia

Top and Mokkai Movies of 2008

2008-12-16T03:55:00.000-08:00

We are nearing the end of the year 2008 and here is my list of some of the Top and Mokkai movies of the year. Though there are plenty of Mokkai movies, every year, I have listed only the movies, that gave much hype and then failed miserably.

Some Top Movies of 2008

Anjadhae
Saroja
Subramaniapuram (though I didn't like that climax)
Santhosh Subramanipuram
Dhasvatharam | Varanam Aayiram

I m yet to watch "Poo". Heard that movie is good to watch.

Some Mokkai Movies of 2008

Kuruvi
Kuselan
Sathyam
Aegan
Sakaraikatty

.....!!!!

2008-12-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

Got Married!!!!

Yes! I m a Caged Lion now...

I wanted to write about this long time back - in fact, before our marriage itself - but was held up a lot at that time.

Gomathi and I got married on November 3, 2008 @ Chennai., with the blessings of parents, relatives and friends. Life after marrige is really Great!!!

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The Andamanz...

We went to the Andaman Islands after our marriage. If compared with the dirty beaches here in Chennai, the beaches in Andaman are real heaven.

Our long time desire to fly in an aeroplane and to travel by ship got fulfilled in this trip. The trip was fantastic.

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The Mumbai Attack...

Another sad incident in the recent times. As a normal citizen, I can only pray, such incidents should never happen in future.

The Indian News channels used this incident as an opportunity to increase their TRPs.

By the way, why some of them were searching for Raj Thakre during this attack? May be they wanted to spoil the already spoiled situation.

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Varanam Ayiram

The first half of the movie was good and the second half was boring. Surya's acting was good. He had put in plenty of efforts for this movie, but nothing of that was needed for this story.

I have a feeling that some other actor should have played that father's role.

When compared to her other movies, Sameera Reddy looked more graceful in this movie.

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back @ work...

back to work after 3 weeks break. Its almost one week, since I have reported back at work, but still haven't pulled even a single nail. Trying to figure out the first nail for a loooooooong time.

Hope I will find that soon :-)

Touching incident and the Chennai Police

2008-09-24T03:58:00.000-07:00

Today's morning newspapers had this news : The organs of a young boy, who died in an accident, were donated by the boy's parents.

A big salute to the parents who took such great decision even during a sad time. My prayers for the family.

The Chennai Police have also played a wonderful role to take the the heart to a hospital which is 20 km away, in just 10 minutes. Good Work by the Police!!!

Interesting narration about the incident HERE

Hindu article about the incident HERE

Endhiran Photos

2008-09-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Aeeeeiiiiiiiiiii.....

2008-09-23T02:07:00.000-07:00

Vadivelu Sirrrrrr......

Few newspaper said you have imitatedAjithkumar in your next movie (Villu) - just as you did it in Pokiri (for Surya.) Few of his die hard fans felt this as an insult to their hero and attacked your house and office.

Where did our Captain come in this?

If you want to sit in the CM chair in 2011, do that directly. Enga singathae chinda venam!!!