Hierarchy at major tech companies

Here is a funny take on how all the biggest tech companies are organized from designer Manu Cornet, via Foursquare product chief Alex Rainert. Rainert notes on Tumblr, "Some really great representations, though I think its little more centralized in Facebook than shown here. Apple & Microsoft are truly hilarious."

Image: Bonkers World

N.Korea shuts all universities

TO become a great, powerful & prosperous nation is the ambition of every developing country. A variety of measures are taken globally to accelerate growth in all spheres. In our country India, lot of money is being spent on education for this prospective development and growth.

N.Korea has taken a lot many steps ahead and has announced closure of all its universities for next 10 months. The students will be put to work mostly at construction site and for repair work of agricultural region that were affected by a typhoon recently. Only exemptions are foreign students and those who will be graduating within next few months.

Pyongyang has told the North Korean people that the nation will have achieved its aim of becoming "a great, prosperous and powerful nation" in 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of the founder of the reclusive state, Kim Il-sung. In addition, Kim Jong-il will turn 70 in February and the "Dear Leader" hopes to be able to transfer his power and an economically stronger nation to his son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong-Un.

I am almost speechless, the analysts in Japan have however claimed that a fear of "Jasmine Revolution" could be the reason to disperse students from campus.

Google Withdraws 2 Ambitious Projects

Innovation and success are two words synonymous to GOOGLE. It is arguably the most successful internet company today. But it has not been there without taking risks. There have been failures with few products not even lasting days.

To the list of flops, Google today added 2 of its most ambitious projects, "Google Health" and "Google PowerMeter", because they didn't get enough traction. These were very ambitious projects: the goal was to remake healthcare delivery, and energy distribution respectively, for the internet age.

There's certainly a lot of potential for the internet to improve things when it comes to healthcare and energy, but marred with a lack of focus and partnerships Google did not do well in this space. Plenty of startups are doing well and we might see a buyout in near future. We do remember buyout of YouTube after failure of Google Video.

Finally an Agreement on DRS

Call it the pressure of BCCI or efforts toward fine tuning the decision system. The controversial Decision Review System (DRS) has been unanimously accepted and made mandatory for all matches after going through crucial modifications.

The line lbw decisions (Hawk Eye ball tracker) which has seen strong opposition from BCCI has been eliminated. Now the batsmen can not review a lbw decision if they feel ball pitched outside the leg or wasn't hitting the stumps, however the decision can be reviewed for an edge.

Sound tracking and thermal imaging have been made mandatory for DRS, they will be mostly useful for close catches and edges. This means for the first time India will be agreeable to DRS in a bilateral series against England. The cost for using DRS is estimated at $5000 a day, that would amount to $25000 for a test. The decision on "how to divide this cost" is yet to be taken .

A heartbreaking SALE

A legendary car, gifted by a driving legend (Michael Schumacher) to a cricket legend (Sachin Tendulkar) for equaling feat of another legend (Don Bradman) has been sold to a builder from Surat.

The car, gifted in 2002  by the automobile major to Sachin when he equalled Don Bradman’s record of 29 Test centuries, raised many eyebrows and has been in controversy even before it touched Indian soil. It has been sold out @ a whopping 1.5 crores. The most lame reason I ever heard of, "Car required a lot of parking space, and Sachin wanted to dispose the car before he moves in his new 5-storey, 10,000 sq. ft bungalow".

So what's next? I just hope Sachin has a lot of space for his trophies or we might see a PadmaVibhushan on sale.

Wrist Computers

DeskTOP --> LapTOP --> PalmTOP --> ...

Sony has come up with this innovative computer design which we can wear around like a designer watch. Still in its naive state, but the idea seems to peep into a whole new generation of future computers. Enjoy some of the snapshots::: Soon we can be sporting cool wrist computers

Poor US of A

This is exclusively for those, who view the healthcare facilities of developing nations with disdain. An old(smart) man took a very calculative risk to land into a prison for free healthcare.

James Verone, of Gastonia, North Carolina, was so desperate to get help for a bad back, foot and growths on his chest that he made the calculated decision to stage the unusual robbery. He robbed the bank for $1.

The unemployed 59 yr old, who can't afford healthcare, walked up to the cashier and demanded $1 from her. He intentionally sat at the couch, waiting for police. Unfortunately for him, he was not possessing any weapon that time, so he will not be in jail as long as he actually wanted to.

“I'm sort of a logical person and that was my logic. This is what I came up with,” explained Mr Verone.

News on Yahoo

Successful Traits

At school, a banner said in bold, "Winners don't do different things, they do it differently". I just read this at HBR blog, defining that difference.

Decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. It turns out that even some of the highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to explaining their secret of success.

1. Be Specific: Goal to "sleep at 10" is much better and clear than "sleep early"
2. Seize the moment: In our busy schedules we tend to ignore or fail to notice the opportunity. Was it really not possible to return that call?
3. Measure Performance: Keep intermediate checkpoints to monitor the progress of goal.
4. Realistic Optimism: Realizing one's potential is the key to success. 
5. Focus on Improvement: Take that extra step of getting better always. Its not about doing it good, believing that our skills are fixed. Always focus on how to do it better.
6. Have Grit: Persistence is a very important factor, the rough weathers will be always awaiting. To stand firm and committed at tough times is something many of us fail to do.
7. Build Will power muscles: Just like any other muscle of our body, the will power also becomes weak if not exercised properly. Be strong and test yourself frequently.
8. Count those extra miles: No matter how strong you are, there will be limitations. Don't take 2 challenging tasks at one time. Counting those extra miles is extremely important as overtaxing will make us run out of steam temporarily and trigger a downward spiral.
9. Focus on what to do instead of what not to do: Do we want to give up a bad habit? Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about smoking!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in our mind. So better let us work on an alternative action. To control anger, take a deep breadth, etc.

So this is the time to get over the mistakes which derail us from the right track.

Original Article

India Experimenting

Its been really long, I read an article like this from Indian media. this is from Wall Street journal, worth a read, INDIA experimenting with its primary level education system.

The Right to Education Act, passed in 2009, mandates that private schools set aside 25% of admissions for low-income, underprivileged and disabled students. In Delhi, families earning less than 100,000 rupees (about $2,500 a year) qualify.

Sounds like an excellent idea, a probable thought to bridge the gap between rich & poor society of India. 

But is the gap really this small in a rigid hierarchical society like India where rich/poor, employer/servant are 2 different side of coins?

The results obtained so far are frustration and disappointment. The coveted class children come to school prepared with basics like alphabets, colors, and may be some extra general knowledge. Their social skills is in striking contrast to the ones living in slums. Teachers find it hard to focus on the slow paced students, what they could earlier achieve in a week is taking 3 weeks now. Is it fair on the part of kids who have the ability to do better?

Is this jarring juxtaposition justified? It is obviously necessary to bridge this gap, but sometimes the gap is just too wide. The same set of poor students need to be taken care of separately. May be more special classes. As a matter of fact, how about improving the standards of government school? Why enforce private schools to adjust? 

Original Article