Time to guess What it is?

Time to guess What it is?

Can you tell us what this strange contraption is for?

Rob has been collecting unusual tools and other objects for quite a while, and several years ago he started this project of posting them on the web as puzzles for visitors to figure out what they are. And he doesn't say till some one recognizes what it is.

Users can place guess in the comment section. To make it more interesting you got to think and write your guess. Time to give some time for your drop-dead brain some thinking & take it away from automatic living.

Time to guess What is it?

Japanese fish

Japanese fish

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought lower price.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.

Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they manage to get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

As soon as you reach your goals, such as finding a wonderful mate, starting a successful company, paying off your debts or whatever, you might lose your passion. You don't need to work so hard so you relax.

Like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is simple. L. Ron Hubbard observed it in the early 1950's. "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment."

The Benefits of a Challenge: The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are happy. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive!

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they're supposed to help you discover who you are!

Via | Sreenivas

Wonderful One Minute

Wonderful One Minute

One smart Software engineer and his Project Manager were traveling towards Pune in a train.

Just Opposite to their seat, a beautiful girl was sitting along with her grand ma. With in some time, Eye-Eye interactions started between Our Software engineer & that girl. After some minutes, train started moving in to a tunnel and it was very dark.

Suddenly, every body heard a Kiss sound followed by a sound of slapping.Every body remained silent, when the train came out of the tunnel.

Grand ma thought that," The Guy is a rogue; how dare he? He has kissed my grand daughter! But my Grand daughter is genuine; she immediately slapped that guy."

PM thought that," I can't believe that this guy has kissed that girl! But it is unfair that she slapped me by mistake"

That girl thought that," I feel happy, when that guy kissed me, but I feel sorry that my grand ma has slapped him".

Finally, do u know what our clever Software engineer thought?

"This one minute in my life is wonderful, it hardly comes...because, at a time I have kissed a girl and also I have slapped my PM."

via email | Vanitha

'Lass' Vegas

'Lass' Vegas

Last week I was holidaying in most coveted nightlife destination in the world - Las Vegas. It's all about fun, frolic & masti in a wonderful place which is also known as sin city !

After spending marathon hours in Las Vegas finally I came into this conclusion: Las Vegas is nothing, without - Lass, Lighting & Looting.

Lass ? Seems ridiculous ? you got to agree :) Lass, as you know means gals. I bet if you don't get tuned to the core if you're in Vegas. The ultra babe crossed you either in Casino, night club or on the pavements of lovely Vegas strip gives you sure shot thunderstorms - be prepared for it if you're in Vegas! I've traversed from Bangkok to Bombay, London to Frankfurt, Singapore to Sunnyvale, but there's nothing like Las Vegas when it comes to beautiful gals. It seems all beauties have gathered in Vegas for one or the other reason !

Next one is Lighting. A structure which dunno how to use lighting is gone for toss here. I was bowled over by the interior & exterior lightings of The Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio etc.,

If you come all the way to Las Vegas you have to come to The Venetian hotel. It's amazing, these people have gone to a great extent to reproduce many of the landmarks of Venice in a truly realistic way. Of all the hotels I visited in Las Vegas The Venetian was the one that impressed me the most. It can't be hold in words one got to experience it. This has one of the most breath taking casinos in Vegas, and on my top 3 list for casinos. Its a must see. The Venetian has also some of the best shopping I found in Las Vegas. The cafes, the ambiance, the sky, everything has an Italian feel.

The spectacular example is 'the day sky' inside the hotel. Believe it - the sky looks like you're hanging around in Venice at 3 in the evening though it's 11 in the night. You will see an always blue sky with a few white clouds which was modeled on the early evening sky in Venice except of course it never rains here ! Every 15 minutes or so the "sky" turns from daytime to nigh time just like that! The clouds also look like they are moving when you walk down the streets inside - great illusions ! They even have the water channels, with gondolas and the gondoliers singing "Oh sole mio". It's cool to see an artificial canal running inside hotel which takes people for a short float. I wanted to try it, but they said you got to book at least 14 days before ! Oh man, the canal looks like a real blue water flowing inside Venice city ! I was thinking- If I get married & have onsite opportunity in US; Las Vegas Venice's Gondola ride is A must and its very romantic I'm Sure.

Looting ? What looting ? yes I am talking about casino's of Vegas. Either you get looted by casino's or you'll loot casinos if you're vested with the luck ;) But by default, it's always casino's who come prepared to empty your pocket ;) You never know how smoothly loose your money. As I said lucky gamblers makes money here. amongst zillions of casinos of Vegas. I lost a little & made a bit too. Kind of break even gambling ;) ! Since I was on budget tour de Vegas- ensured I've enough bucks to catch a cab back to Airport ;)

Finally, I've heard a lot about him, been mesmerized with his composing, I dreamt of shooting like his photos & finally I happened to see his fantastic wall level blowups at his Venetian gallery:

>> Peter Lik-shots

Shoot until u feel great..

Shoot until u feel great..

I recently got the following from a client...

Thus far, I would say that most of the images I've captured are boring and uninteresting. I want to learn to capture images that will stop people in their tracks. Images that will make people say "wow".

This got me thinking... How does one make really stunning photographs? What does it take? How can we aim for, and work toward achieving this lofty goal? So, here are five ideas to move you forward toward greatness:

• Define Greatness
• Define yourself and your work. Identify where you are now as and where you will be.
• Make photographs to please yourself
• Engage people you already dialogue through your work
• Learn from Experts

>> And over to Zivkov for more

Flickr link of the day
>> My friend Vyas has shot amazing pictures with his new Nikon D80

Jude Law: Breaking and Entering

Jude Law: Breaking and Entering

Though I've not watched much of his movies, I managed to watch 'Crocodile Tears' wayback, I could think of Jude as one of the decent actors. If you call method acting, natural acting, whatever acting- he's the guru of it.

It was pleasure to watch his latest flick in British airways flight on the way back to Bangalore. Good part was 9 odd hrs of direct flight from London with new movies in menu. I had ample time to watch The History Boys, Rocky Balboa, Breaking and Entering sipping my favo Heineken beer. I preferred -Breaking and Entering probably because it was Jude's movie. He looks bit elderly, still have that young charm of expressing placid emotions. I like his kind of elegance, though he relies much on metaphors.

It's story about theft, both criminal and emotional, “Breaking & Entering” follows three people whose lives intersect in the inner-city area of King’s Cross. When a landscape architect’s (Jude Law) state of the art offices in a seedy part of town are repeatedly burgled, his investigations launch him out of the safety of his familiar world.

The movie drives into various effusion levels with a nice plot. It's difficult to get off from the screen once glued to it while watching this movie. The moment Amira (Juliette Binoche) enters into center stage, the movie takes emotions to different tunes. Aaah ! she's simply stupendous in her role of; protecting her son Miro from theft charge. Her English with a Serbian accent is just too natural. The movie is so intense that your heart cries for the lovely mommy Amira & her inexplicable situation.

It's a touchy movie & though it's revolves around King's cross, it's also shot on the stylish bridge just behind Lehman brother's office in Canary wharf, London. The way was my usual route to home. It paints earthier and more enjoyable picture about London immigrants.

One question lingers in my mind after watching it. Who's breaking & entering in this movie ? Is it Miro who broke into Francis office or Franics breaking into Amira 's life ? I say, its a must watch.

A poem

A poem

While shuttling between office & home, I found an interesting stuff in London tubes; bunch of poems- worth reading & remembering. Every tube train has at least one poem besides their inside ads . I'm not sure if they're some kind of sonnets or what. Though the max journey lasts for about 10 minutes or so they made me to ponder over their meaningful words, thought provoking lines. Mostly they're hatched-around the themes of living, desire, hopes of London life.

Check this interesting poem I saw in one of the tubes between Waterloo & Canary wharf. It captures the true mascara of London & its fast paced life.

Optimistic Little Poem

Now and then it happens
that somebody shouts for help
and somebody else jumps in at once
and absolutely gratis.

Here in the thick of the grossest capitalism
round the corner comes the shining fire brigade
and extinguishes, or suddenly
there's silver in the beggar's hat.

Mornings the streets are full
of people hurrying here and there without
daggers in their hands, quite equably
after milk or radishes.

As though in a time of deepest peace.
A splendid sight.

This is what I found about these poems in internet:

"Poems on the Underground, founded in 1986, is supported by London Underground, Arts Council England and the British Council, which distributes the posters to its offices throughout the world. Poems are selected and the programme administered by the writer Judith Chernaik and poets Gerard Benson and Cicely Herbert."

Why employees leave organisations ?

Why employees leave organisations ?

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

Early this year, Mark, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.
He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office,and the very best technology,even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Mark was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined.

Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Mark walked out of the job.

Why did this talented employee leave ?
The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding:

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss .Immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he 's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge, experience & contacts with them, straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Mostly manager drives people away?
HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don 't have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue
- Azim Premji, CEO- Wipro

Why uglier the better?

Why uglier the better?

It’s a tiny chip from my busy UI work station.

Telecom rocks everywhere, especially when it's wireless. True, it's a hot segment. Life is barren minus communication. Pardon granted to network jamming in Bangalore. With a new brand guidelines, international presence over wireless -knowledge transfer, ultra catchy UI specifications I started my new tenure. Days are yummy with aah! like coffees, toffees, ultra thin LCD's, tightly scheduled meetings, compact neo designed cubicles, hot & sour fms, flexi hours, music flowing into earphones...

I'm delegated to understand, overhaul, redesign, refurbish, uplift the GUI of one of the successful application.I built a fair idea about the app from usability perspective. I pinged my architect to fathom the ratio of demographic application usage & web usage stats. His reply was simply astonishing. It's one of the most widely used application & is buzzing global wireless circuits in a macro sense. I was much keen on product user count, though it has less impact on my cubicle informtion architecturing & laboring !

Reason was simple. It looks like a legacy design with a marginal effort on styling & presentation. It resembles 3.1 window interface in a neo era of dynamic applications. It seems technology arrived prior to design in choked interface, aborted usability, hard coded xhtml & forbidden CSS ! Obviously, It was designed way back in '97, where UI designing has less prominence over functionality. Till date only functional updates are upfront. As a result usability & accessibility lacks to the core. But in P/L margins it's a best- of-the-breed in the par-applications segment. It's packed with tight application framework and vested with powerful technology available around.

Interestingly, it's built by one of the finest software firms of India, which is accountable for Silk Board traffic choking every morning in Bangalore !

In placid words, it's nothing new. It's a common phenomenon that applications very frequently undergo re-skining. Instantly, the query birthed like a tiny bug inside me and started nagging in 24/7 ishtyle*.

Why ? even the saddest looking applications do better business contrary to impressive ones. Why uglier the better? Why users hardly raise a flag against interface-less apps. What matters a most? The so-called 'Goodwill' factor Or the intelligent brand strategy? Comprimising nature for a good service or a strategic marketing of the company? Lack of know-how on clean UI or not bothering about it at-all? Why Slashdot rocks? Is it because of content or speed ? What matters most ?

Today, all these doubts're resolved with this nicety blog of Aaron. It's a must read simple post if you're using Gmail & Microsoft etc & STILL have queries about the sloppy interfaces.

* style, manner, in a way.

Isn't it strange ?

Isn't it strange ?

Isn't it strange how Rs. 20/-seems like such a large amount when you donate it to temple, but such a small amount when you go shopping?

Isn't it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you're at place of worship, and how short they seem when you're watching a good movie?

Isn't it strange that you can't find a word to say when you're praying,but you have no trouble thinking what to talk about with a friend?

Isn't it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible/ Quran / Gita, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel?

Isn't it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible to sit at the last row in a holy place?

Isn't it strange how we need to know about an event for temple 2-3 weeks before the day so we can include it in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?

Isn't it strange how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others, but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?

Isn't it strange how we believe everything that magazines and newspapers say, but we question the words in the Bible and other holy books?

Isn't it strange how everyone wants a place in heaven, but they don't want to believe, do, or say anything to get there?

Isn't it strange how we send jokes in e-mails and they are forwarded right away, but when we are going to send messages about God, we think about it twice before we share it with others?

"We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly while embracing each other.Sharing and Caring endures human life."

[ Sent by:Sachin Sagar ]

Good luck Mr. Gorsky !

Good luck Mr. Gorsky !

The following is a copy pasted in some article, so no credits to me. I also don't know the origin and just hope its really true ;)

On July 20th 1969, as commander of Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first words after stepping on the Moon "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" were televised to Earth and heard by millions. But just before he re-entered the Lander, he made the enigmatic remark "good luck Mr. Gorsky." Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American Space programs.

Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the "good luck Mr. Gorsky"... statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled. On July 5th 95, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong.

This time he finally responded.

Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question. In 1938 when he was a kid in a small Midwest town, {Wapakoneta, Ohio} he was playing Baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbour's yard by the bedroom windows. His neighbours were Mr. & Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky "sex! You want sex?! You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on the Moon!"

Wicked Man! Can't resist a quote today. Just for my readers :)