Rantings

Huh…???

I was checking out the live feed from Facebook regd the video service they rolled out yesterday and noticed this comment on the live feed form.. all I can say is WTF 🙂

2011 Resolutions..

For the few folks that keep in touch with me through this website.. Happy New Year!! :). Hope this new year brings you health and love.

I am usually not a resolutions guy :).. But I wanted to give it a try this year. And I am making them public, so that I have more incentive (read pressure) to reach them. Without future adieu, here they are

  1. Take a look at this picture No.. not the part, where I am eating Jhanvi’s head :).. But that big fat gut hanging out for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Loosing that is my first resolution.
  2. Second picture..This is a picture of the traffic to this site, according to Google. I want to double that by the end of this year. In other words, write more often :).
  3. The third resolution doesn’t have a picture :). I have always wanted to get a CISSP certification. Well, this year, I am going to stop thinking and act on it.
  4. And finally, the fourth one is to go on a decent vacation. Ideally, some place exotic :)..And hopefully, we will have a visa to visit it.

I like to be in control of my destiny

I don’t have a Facebook or twitter account and that surprises a lot of my friends since I am such a geek :). And the reason I keep (kept) giving was that I want to be in control of my destiny. In this case, destiny being content. While Facebook and Twitter provide you with a easy way to connect with friends/relatives/stalkers etc, I believe it gives a lot of leeway on control over the content for the companies running these applications. I have all the means and ways to communicate with my friends and advertise what I need to world. How I do that? That is a blog post that I have been “drafting” for the last couple of months :)..Hope to publish it soon. And looks like the wider audience is finally waking up to it.

Check out this article on ReadWriteWeb regd how the tech leaders are calling for a boycott of Facebook and advocating for an open social networking protocol (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/more_web_industry_leaders_quit_facebook_call_for_o.php).

Another article on the same website, speaks about a study by the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Korea, which shows that Twitter is really not a social networking site, but more of a medium to broadcast your content (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_twitter_isnt_very_social.php). Doesn’t really support the argument I made earlier that Twitter is not going to make it..but it certainly supports the notion that once the hype is gone the influence of twitter as a medium will decrease.

Lessons of the Trade : Easy method to detect lame salespeople (companies)..

Some background.. I get an email from a sales rep from one of the biggest telecom provider. The sales person attached a 4 MB document that shows the services offered by the company in one page.. Yes, a one pager document that is 4MB in size!!.. And this document tells me how this company can do everything other than wash my dishes for me..that they are biggest and baddest out there.

Do you think that this person even gave a minutes thought before filling up my mailbox with a 4MB attachment? Nope.. will he be getting my business? Nope.. It is not that the sales rep sent me such a large attachment, but because the company that can supposedly offer the best technical solutions out there cannot figure out a way to show their offerings in a single page without bloating it. Shows that the company is not innovative and thinking of customers.

Maybe I am being harsh here.. but then I have pretty high standards :).

Welcoming 2010

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 🙂 and hooping this new year will bring you joy, luck and health. Isn’t it amazing how quickly the first decade of the 21st century passed away. I usually don’t make new year resolutions, but last year for some reason, I decided to. Here’s a recap of them

Write at least 3 times a week on this blog

How did I do with this? Not as well as I wanted to. Here’s a chart showing the postings per month

I started well in January, but then as with most new year resolutions it didn’t last for more than a month :). But I started picking up again at the end of the year. Hope I can continue the trend.

Run one half marathon ever month in a different state

Don’t laugh :).. seriously this was something I have been wanting to do for a long time and I thought this was the year. But alas little did I know that I had to work so many weekends :). I barely managed to run 3 half marathons and that too in only two neighboring states. Won’t make any promises..but hope to do better next year. I should mention that I did register for 3 races in different states for the first three months of 2009.. Just didn’t make it to the races 🙂

Even though I didn’t stick with my resolutions, 2009 was an interesting year. Accomplished a lot at work, but more importantly gained a life partner :).

Morale of the story.. Don’t make resolutions. Just do it!! :).