TIP FOR ORKUT !

I've observed a novel feature of Orkut: if you change any thing on your profile then all of your Orkut friends are intimated about it. But here's the CATCH - the URL section (under profile) is generally used for putting BLOG (or anything..let's say your website) on your profile, so what if I update my BLOG ? Will my 130 or so Orkut friends be notified about it - since I've changed my BLOG and the link is right there in my Orkut profile and hence EFFECTIVELY my profile has changed ??

On the flip side - if this IDEA is implemented then BLOGGERS will find that their EFFORTS in updating BLOGS won't go in vain, provided the URL LINK to their BLOG is present on their Orkut profile. After all, BLOGS are meant to be publicly seen, so BLOGGERS (like me) would appreciate if internet could enable BLOG CREATORS to add MORE VISIBILITY to their respective blogs..

Orkut designers - can you hear me ?

( :

THE SIXTH SENSE !

DO THIS : Next time when you are sitting in a bus and are left to thoughts all-alone, feeling very good or bad about a person (either of the EXTREMES) OBSERVE the things you SEE while on road..Let's say you are thinking very bad about some person (say MUKUL) and you are muttering some expletives against him....BANG - you SEE a BUS full of passengers on road with this tag: "MUKUL TRAVELS PVT. LTD."....(I've observed this many-a-times)

Probably that's why they say that ACTIONS imitate THOUGHTS (and vice versa)...

( :

IF YOU HAVE IT, FLAUNT IT !

Recently I came across an "interesting profile" on Orkut (not sure about the person) : The guy was quite handsome (as per the pics posted) , that he was a guitarist cum software engineer and was quite FLAUNTING about the fact that he had umpteen Girl Friends. I was scouring through his profile when I read this in the 'BOOKS' section of his profile : "I read MANY BOOKS, but I don't FLAUNT"...BANG ! HERE'S THE CATCH MY FRIEND - You don't mind flaunting your "so many" Girls Friends and Guitar on Orkut but then why NOT BOOKS ?

The best analogy that I could make was this THOUGHT PROVOKING wise-crack from Edward De Bono's "How to Have a Beautiful mind":
"We spend so much on external beauty but why not on one thing which can create a beautiful life for us - MIND !!!"

My thought - When will we start getting ADs on TV quite parallel to those semi-erotic AXE (deo) ADs...? Difference being the focus on MIND rather than the BODY...

Probably the ADVERTISERS are smart enough to realise that voracious book lovers hardly fall for TV...

Food for thought ?

( :

NAMESAKE !!!

I will never forget this zany but consistent ATM (of Bank 'X') in the complex that housed my office. No matter at which date/time/day you go, you'll always find either of these 2 EXHAUSTIVE conditions:
1) Either the ATM won't be working.
2) Or, you enter any amount less than 500 and you get this reply from the ATM Terminal:
"Please enter amount in multiples of 100 only !"
Tell me - Isn't 100,200,300 and 400 multiples of 100 ? Funny mathematics ! ( :

I used this ATM for around 1 year until my office location changed, what never changed in that 1 year were the aforesaid 2 conditions...

Co-incidentally, the BANK changed it's name (another of those stupid and futile MANAGEMENT subterfuges of tricking the customer) and came with this punch line:
"Everything is the same, except the name!"

I said (gawking at that ATM) - "HOW TRUE !!!"

( :

You and I - in this beautiful world !

STIMULUS: This SMS from Hutch - "Ab Rs.222, Rs.333 aur Rs.555 recharge par paayein FULL CALLING VALUE (Less of Service Tax). Recharge Today. Limited Period Offer !"

RESPONSE: I scamper away like a spook to the nearest Shopkeeper and ask him to recharge for Rs. 333 (To be on SAFER side...as 333 lies well protected between 222 and 555)...The shopkeeper obliges ME and I get this SMS upon recharge - "Rs.296 have been credited to your account."
Myself: "That's CHEATING man..It was written FULL CALLING VALUE..333 Rs. should have been credited to my account..."
Shopkeeper: "READ it CAREFULLY again..the SERVICE TAX is ZERO....But did it say anything about the PROCESSING FEE ?..BTW : Had you asked me, I would have advised you to go ahead with Rs.375 one as that would have fetched you a neat 375 !!!"
Myself - "But they never sent me an SMS for Rs.375...."
Shopkeeper - "They GENERALLY don't ...!"

Moral of the Parable:

1) Total Fee (of Recharge Coupon) = CALLING VALUE+SERVICE TAX *
2) Always inquire first from your shopkeeper... !


P.S => * - excluding Processing Fee .

(NOTICE THE FONT SIZE OF POST SCRIPT)

( :

BREVITY SAYS IT ALL !

One of my chums advised me (he's a frequent visitor to my blog) to keep as terse articles on my blog as possible..I agree with him (as almost all good things come in small packages - don't know why we keep waiting incessantly for the BIG PACKAGES!) and hence have tried my level best to put as short/compact and pithy articles as possible...After all - almost everyone remembers only the first 15% of whatever is said/written...According to Edward De Bono - our brain tends to do as much LESS THINKING as possible..BRAIN'S FUNDA is to simplify life (and thinking!)....Hence, as a corollary - I guess the "effective grasping percentage" can be enhanced if only the verbose speech/writings could be shortened !

Food for thought for our Politicians ???

( :

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL !

Interesting titbit....

When your screen is white, be it an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when its black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.

In a response to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, check it out.

http://www.blackle.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mukul says : Any WONDER why the MAJORITY of the PIXELS (BACKGROUND) on my BLOG are of BLACK colour ?

SAVE ENERGY !

( :

Who came first - Humans or Systems ?

One of the managers (a witty Singaporean woman) in my IT project, who looks after Database Management, once detected a serious mismatch between Production and UAT environment. This got her furious as the users had done testing on the WRONG environment ! So she quipped : "I guess Systems should react to Humans and not the other way round !!!"

I got bemused by this statement at first instance as I found it quite OBSCURE....

Few days later, the Database experts in my team got elated as the Database processes were working faster and efficiently THAT DAY. Incredibly : The Database team had no idea about this "increased efficiency" - as they had done ZILCH effort for the DESIRED effect ! However, they were just happy with the "good" OUTCOME....Suddenly - Pat comes the aforesaid MANAGER's retort:
"TEAM..You need to find out WHY the Database process is working so efficiently ?"....
One of the Database experts in my team got miffed by this..He grieved : "If the process is slow then it makes sense to find out why? But when it's working fast - do we really need to find out why ? Let it run fast - as long as it's good for us !"

After hearing this, I got the latent meaning behind the MANAGER'S pithy comment :
"Systems should REACT to humans and not the OTHER way round !!!".

I want to add just one more line to this : "Provided the SYSTEMS are ARTIFICIAL !!!"

( :