Seek Feedback!

Many a times we deliver a lecture, a presentation or even just a public speech but never try to rate it. We never try to find out whether we were good, bad or worse, what the positive points were and what the negative points were. Even if we do it is not sure that we would get any genuine feedback especially if the seeker is the boss or superior of the person seek. But seeking feedback is one of the most important things to do if you want to improve. In electrical engineering, feedback loops are often used to keep the system under control and to make it robust. So should it be in the real world. Any time there is a possibility to seek the feedback it is best to seek. At the same time give the most genuine feedback to those who seek it. (You may have to make a disclaimer about the frankness :) ).
Samuel Johnson once said "Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most like it least." The same is true with feedback too. We would rather be happy with false praise than be rescued with true feedback. We should try to come out of this mentality and seek feedback so that we improve ourselves.
Seek feedback about your positive points, your negative points and seek feedback on how you can improve yourselves. Listen to everyone around, make a list on what they suggest, analyze them and make a plan for yourself to improve. You would be happy that you did so.
I seek genuine feedback on how this article went. I am sure I would get more negative points than positive, but I hope to improve myself in the coming ones. I followed "Write drunk, edit sober" formula. Hope I would get back and edit this sometime.

Wedding clashes!

Recently a lot of my friends got married. I was closely involved with the wedding proceedings of couple of them. In the process I found out that wedding time is a time of clashes. Elders think that bride and bridegroom dont listen to them and dont have enough respect for the rituals that go on at the wedding. Kids think that the rituals are ridiculous especially in this age. It got me thinking whose mistake is it that there exists this kind of difference? Do kids really condescend the rituals? So I asked them why, if they , condescend the rituals. Primary reason I got is, it is old style, its baseless and mostly why are they even there? What is their significance? So I went and asked elders what their significance is, and interestingly they dont know the answer. They did it in their marriage and so they want their kids to do it in their marriage. Why, dont ask, we cant answer such questions. You folks dont have respect for our culture. Wow! I thought. Just because you cant answer our questions, you lead to the conclusion that we dont have respect for culture. phew!
I strongly believe that the rituals exist for a reason. No civilization creates something unless they believe there is a reason. The reason may be absurd, but there would be a reason. It may not be a rational one but still there should be a reason. Unfortunately our curiosity to question and find out the reason has diminished and so did the duty of passing those details down to your next generation. If only our parents have found out why they are doing the rituals and answered our questions, may be the difference in the opinion on the rituals wont have been there. I ventured into and found out few of them and believe it or not, they make sense (at least when you put them in to the time line they were created). One can do a full phd on the rituals that happen just in a marriage.
How many of you know why there are games after the wedding in which both the bride and the bridegroom have to participate? How many of you know why apply turmeric and sandalwood to everyone who attends a hindu wedding? Why do they tie three knots? What do those vows mean? Not many people know the meaning. There are several of such small rituals that crept into our culture for a reason. If anyone is interested in either questioning or answering the questions posed, please do so. I would love to continue this discussion over to other topics too.
On a side note, ever heard of the saying, never clean your ears at night? Why do you think it exists?

My wedding invitation

Hello All,
It gives me immense pleasure to invite you all for my wedding on December 7th, 2008 at 1:35am (early hours of Monday) and for the reception on December 9th, from 7pm onwards. Please consider this mail as my personal invitation and plan to attend the wedding and the reception.
I can be reached at 9849961911 after 6pm.
Thanks
Suresh

Write drunk, edit sober

More often than not I set out to blog about something which I have a vague idea about what to write. I open the edit post only to realize the idea is not concrete enough, I do not know how to start the write up, or how its flow should be. I think for a while and then either write or totally discard the idea of writing. It happens to be the later case more often than the earlier case. Because of this, most of the ideas/thoughts are just lost. This happens to a lot of people, they get an idea which lingers in their mind, they think about it for a while, and get to a point where it is matured enough to put in paper, only to realize that they dont have good words to put it. They think that they can come back to write it down with better words. Yes, they would come back with better words only to realize that they forgot their original idea in entirety.
I used to be the same person. It is the same case for most of us. We need to be more proactive about this shortcoming and change our attitude a bit. I did mine when I read this phrase in a book by name "Living like Da Vinci" where it says "Write drunk, edit sober." The key point to what it says is, the idea is more important than how you put it. It is easier to come back and edit the words than to come back with changed idea. Idea should always be written down in whatever kind of words that come to your mind. Forget about grammatical mistake, forget about spelling mistakes. Just keep writing. Just get the complete idea out. There always time to come back and edit the words, but not the idea.
So my friends, I advise this to all of you, if you get an idea, no matter how small or big, put it on paper, even if it is just couple of words. There is always time to come back and enrich it and the words.
By the way, I wrote this post drunk now :) Let me see if I come back and edit it sober.
P.S: Trivia: Apparently only 10% of idea ever make onto paper, even in the worst form.

10 ways to kill time at work place

I am pretty free today at work and was wondering what I should do to kill my time. I figured out there must be a bunch of people just like me in the world. Please share your comments on this.

1. Solve crossword from Hindu at www.thehindu.com
2. Play poker online at full tilt poker
3. Stumble the web with stumbleupon
4. Read the news from google news.
5. Catch up with old friends.
6. Learn a new thing useful to your daily work.
7. Check your bank balances and finances.
8. Make a to do list for the weekend
9. Go meet your colleagues and see what they are doing.
10. Write blogs on how to kill time :)
    

Welcome to Trip Ladder!

Hi all,
I have been promoting my site www.tripladder.com Each time someone sees it in my profile, they ask what it is all about. This is my attempt to answering that.
www.tripladder.com is a site designed to make your trip planning easier. With a step by step approach to trip planning it is like climbing the ladder. We offer you valuable tools to effectively plan and organize your trip details.
Search for the reviews written by other travellers just like you. This would give you first hand information about the places and help you plan your trip better.
Currently I am looking for people who could write very nice and detailed reviews about the famous places near there home town or the places where they have visited. If you would like to contribute to my website, I would be glad to assist you in any possible way I can.
Thanks for your interest. Don't forget to check out the website
www.tripladder.com

Theme exercise: color

8:15am : I open my eyes and see the blue bedsheet that I am lying on. I look outside through the white blinds of my bedroom and see the clear crisp sun light. I feel like basking in it.
8:20am : I enter into my bathroom and see the while tiles that fill my bathroom. The soap I use is pink color. The color of paste is light blue with white deposits on it.
9:00am : The color of my carpet is brown-dark brown color. I go down and pick up the banana that is in brigh yellowish green color.
9:15am: I step out of the house to see the lush green grass on the lawn. I would lie on it on Saturday.
9:20am: I get into the car - Navy blue
9:45am: I see the my office building with white walls and blue windows. It looks good.
10:00am: Entered the office building that has multi colored walls. Each section is a different color. The walls at the entrance have pale yellow color. The colloboration area has yellow color. The walls adjacent to the conference rooms are blue.
10:15am: I came to my office and saw that the blinds in my office are also white in color. Why are blinds in white color?
11-5pm: All conference rooms are painted white internally and have pale yellow externally.

using scribefire for blogging

I found this interesting site when I was stumbling on the internet. So I thought I would use ScribeFire to write my blog with it.
Getting started with ScribeFire - ScribeFire: Fire up your blogging

If you are a serious blogger I suggest you use Flock, a derivative of Mozilla web browser. It is much more easier to use, and has lot more tools to help you with your blog.

I would try to compare the two in some blog.

curiosita - accelerometer

This exercise is the second one mentioned the book How to think like Da Vinci.
I intend to get curious about a device that I came across recently. It is called "Accelerometer."
1. who invented accelerometer?
2. when was it invented?
3. what was it first use?
4. what is it used mostly in?
5. How does it work?
6. Is it mechanical or electrical?
7. who made it famous?
8: who manufactures it?
9. How much does it cost?
10. what ore all the places it is used?
11. can it replace gyroscope?
12. what fueled it's invention?
13. Is it used in tablet PCS and laptops for shock detection?

Private Pilot Cheat Sheet - Airplane Systems

Four strokes of an engine are intake, compression, power and exhaust stokes.
Induction Systems

1. Throttle and mixture control allow us to chose RPM and the fuel/air ratio.
2. Air forced through venturi picks up velocity and creates low pressure. This low pressure will make the temperatures drop causing water vapor to condense forming carb ice.
3. Carb ice can form at or below 70F with relative high humidity.
4. First indication of carb ice is loss of RPM

Ignition Systems

1. Dual magnetos for improved safety and better engine RPM
2. Detonation is uncontrolled explosive ignition of fuel/air
3. If you suspect detonation, lower the nose to increase airspeed and the cooling airflow around engine and reduce the engine power.
   

Some day I would do this.

Amazing hike, it makes me feel dizzy. You think you can handle this? Think again. Watch the video here.
Check the video here

First cross country flight :)

Yahooo! I have been on my first cross country flight :). Before you start wonder about "cross country!!!!" let me explain what cross country means in the world of aviation. Cross Country in aviation means any flight over :.....
Alright back to my flight. I went to Hemet Ryan from Gillepsie. That is from SEE to HMT. Now for the path. There are bunch of stuff we had to take care in figuring out the flight path. Few of them are: airspace restrictions, the terrain, visible landmarks, near by airports, altitudes, winds and weather etc. Winds and weather were good and was not an issue at all. A straight line through to HMT from SEE would take us through some nasty Bravo airspace. So we had to go around the space. So we thought we would first head out to Ramona (RMN) around San Vincente reservoir. And then shoot over to French Valley via Pauma Valley and then head to Hemit. Now having figured out these as my check points, we had to figure out at what altitude we had to fly. Since we had our magnetic course in the second hemisphere, we had to fly at even+500 feet according to hemispherical rule. The hemispherical rule says "If you are above 3000' AGL and on a magnetic course between 0 and 179 included, the altitude should be at odd+500' feet. If the magnetic course is between 180 and 359 included, then the altitude should be at even+500' feet." To obey this rule, we decided that we would fly at 4500' on the to route and at 5500' on the way back. I got the visual check points, the estimated times to reach them, the magnetic headings needed and the radio frequencies required on the way. Having gotten these, I had to call up the FSS and file a flight plan with them. We asked for a flight plan in a round-robin fashion, which is another way to say it is a to-and-fro without any other landing in between. The briefer told us to open the flight plan on 122 MHz once we are airborne.
I got the plane pre-flighted, which is the process in which we determine if the airplane is good to be flown. The process consists of checking the fuel quality and quantity, the nuts and bolts of the plane, the flight controls. When I went to check the fuel quality, there was water in the fuel tanks. I had to drain the fuel for a while to get clean fuel. After I pre-flighted the plane, we, my flight instructor and I, got into the plane and called the ground for clearance to taxi. Well, after the initial calls and hold shorts, we took off. The winds kept changing direction. We had to adjust the heading every once in a while. The Earth looks very beautiful from air. On the way out we couldn't really see Pauma Valley Airport, as it was just behind a line of mountains and we got a little off to the right side of the intended path. It was beautiful flying over the other airports.

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More questions during Michigan trip!

I came across the following questions when I was on a campus recruiting trip to Michigan. Any inputs on this would be appreciated.

1. Where did the fraternity houses come up?
2. Why do the fraternity houses have some random three Greek letters as their names?
3. How do the fraternity houses pick their names?
4. Why do fossils form?
5. How do fossils form?
6. How do people find the age of a fossil?

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Creativity at its best!!

Friends, I always thought the best creativity comes when multiple disciplines merge to create a totally new way of looking at things. I was never mesmerized creativity as I was mesmerized by the following video. I wonder how long it must have taken for them to come up with this and to orchestrate the whole thing. Kudos to who ever did this. Come back for more of such interesting videos and articles.


If you want to check out the video on youtube, click on the following link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuUERMeLsNw

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Travel checklist!

I was going on a trip to a cold place and was wondering what I need to take along. Here is the checklist I made.
Personal stuff:

1. Tooth brush.
2. tooth paste.
3. tongue cleaner.
4. mouthwash
5. shaving set
6. Body wash /soap.
7. shampoo and conditioner.
8. Towel
9. moisturizer
10. comb
11. chap stick
12. underwear
13. clothes
14. Socks
15. belt
16. jacket
17. warm clothing

Documents and business related stuff:

1. Ticket confirmation
2. Travel documents (Visa., passport)
3. Hotel confirmation
4. car reservation confirmation
5. maps to get to destination.
6. extra cash.
7. cell phone / charger
8. Laptop / charger
9. Ipod /charger
10. Any medicine
11. Music CDs
12. Bluetooth. + charger

wow! just realized that on travel we have to carry so many different chargers. why can't someone come up with a single charger or standardize the charger? may be I should patent the idea.

If you guys have anything to add to the list, please add in the comment.

New words threat I learnt today

I always read books and most of the times I get lot of words that I don't know the exact meaning but can make out the implications of the word. couple of days ago I wanted to switch to the mode where I can get the exact meaning. Earlier I used to go to dictionary.com. But it was not up to mark, I started getting pop-ups and it started to get annoying. I started looking for desktop dictionary software. One of them is word web. I like this since now I can read any article online and get the meaning of any word immediately. I just have to press the combinational key presses to get the meaning. very simple and easy.
Anyway, with that, here are some words that I learnt today.

• manifesto: public declaration of intentions
  
• borough: One of the administrative divisions of a large city
• ablutions: The ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vessels
• ensconced: fix firmly
• filibuster': one who gives long lectures in effort to delay legislation that one opposes
• 
  

Sankranti fun!!

Hello All, Happy Sankranti to all. Happy Pongal to all. For people who dont know what pongal/sankranti is, it is a festival celebrated in India, mostly southern parts of India to celebrate the harvest. It is one of the festivals that is not directly linked to any religious reasons. It is too much of fun, where girls mostly indulge themselves in coming up with interesting rangolis ( also called rangavallika, muggu etc. See the picture for an example) and guys fly kites. Lot of great food, general fun times. I love this festival.
Anyway, here is my celebrations for the year 2008. The muggu follows and then a poem that I wrote about Sankranti the next (actually I wrote the poem an year ago, just posting it now). For those people who think the poem doesnt make sense, it is in a language called Telugu :)


inTi mundu muggulu, andulO gobbemmalu,
inTilo muddu gummalu, vaaritO muddulaaTalu,
ningilO gaalipaTaalu, gunDelO anni aaSalu,
bayaTa haridaasula gaanaalu, lOpala pillala gOlalu,
avatala Du Du basavannala aaTalu, ivatala mana vaaLLa pEkaaTalu,
vanTinTlo raka rakaala vanTakaalu, inni viSEshaalu unnave sankrAnti sambaraalu.

Gold more than $800????

What the heck? Gold has gone wild. The last time I checked gold prices it was $600/oz. Today it is $800/oz. Thats a whooping 33% increase in just a matter of few months. Instead of searching for good stocks to invest on, it is good enough if we buy gold and hold it for a while. Whew! I missed the opportunity.
I was searching for gold prices since my mom told me to check them out and buy some gold if I can for my future marriage. I agreed to her wish since she was so nice in explaining the things that would go through while getting married. It made sense and I stood in to support her. I was totally surprised that gold jumped up like that to $800. No wonder the gold companies stock was going up like crazy. One of them is KGC. Some other companies in silver are also doing well. May be we should invest in such companies.
I read some reports about prices of silver going up to $25/oz from their current $16. It is time to rethink the strategy for investment. Real estate has lost its lustre, retail market is in downturn, financial sector is in crisis. The best option does seem to be precious metals.

100 questions!

I was reading this book called " How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day" by Michael J. Gelb. It starts off explaining the life of the best genius known to mankind, at least thats what the author thinks and I second the opinion. I don't think anyone has such a breadth of research topics and contributions thank Leonardo has. I have not finished the book yet, but one of the places he mentions about writing down 100 questions that come to your mind instantaneously. You should write it in one go, without stopping. Dont judge if the question is good or bad, just keep writing. I read a similar concept elsewhere. So I sat and wrote down the 100 questions that I got. Try your 100 questions and let me know. You can add in comments.

1. who invented a pen?
2. who started the internet business?
3. why do men have nipples?
4. why do women have such an urge to talk?
5. How is emotion different from feeling?
6. what makes a heart beat?
7. why should anyone care about others?
8. why do people act like they do?
9. what is conscience?
10. who develops rockets and missiles knowing that they are harmful?
11. why do humans fight?
12. should man mingle with nature?
13. why don't polar bears live at south pole?
14. why do seals live only at south pole?
15. why does carbon occur in so many forms?
16. who cares about what I think?
17. who started caste system?
18. Does God exist?
19. what does it mean by being divine?
20. what is the difference between being religious and having faith in God?
21. who invented eraser?
22. what prompted anyone to move to digital world?
23. why are X-rays named so?
24. How many sensors are there in a car?
25. why do people of different countries fight?
26. what is the solution to ever increasing traffic problems in India?
27. How to eliminate corruption ?
28. who would be next prime minister?
29. what does it mean by leftist in politics?
30. why do even educated men and women don't have common sense?
31. How come good education doesn't provide with good ethics?
32. why are students asked to rote?
33. why do students need to go through so many closed books exams while is real life it is never going to be a closed book exam?
34. How can I come up with a good caption for my website?
35. How can I generate extra money to have fun with my family?
36. How can I invest so that I can buy a house in a couple of years?
37. How much money should I have to retire at 35 or 40?
38. what is health insurance doing regarding my hands?
39. what are the major hurdles in achieving my goal?
40. How much importance should you give to your principles?
41. what if you and your would be one has total conflict of principles?
42. Can I ever keep a girl happy?
43. why do I feel most of the talks that my friends have is shallow?
44. How can I generate more revenue through bogging?
45. what makes a countries currency more valuable than others?
46. what's the single most thing that you would takeit you have take only one thing in a catastrophe?
47. why do few people achieve more them others?
48. How much percentage of any companies expenditureis on it's advertisement?
49. If the budget of a company is reduced who should get laid off first?
50. What is the role of HR in a company?
51. who would read this biog?
52. why do cockroaches don't go so easily?
53. During conflicts, who should have upperhand?Buyer or seller?
54. How much time does an average person spend on browsing every day?
55. If football players make more money thana Nobel Laureate who should get more recognition?
56. why is financial education not a part of mainstream education?
57. How can I help young college kids to have a better future?
58. How can I inspirethe people around me to excel in whatever they are doing?
59. How much importance should be given to a person who is close to you and double plays you?
60. How many types of teas one there?
61. If restaurant business is most operand andmost closed business, what is the reason?
62. why does America have so much of natural abundance?
63. Is it worth being in the US now?
64. what establishes the stock price of a company?
65. How are stock prices determined every minute?
66. why did Da Vinci research on so many thing?
67. why do most successful menhave bad personal life?
68. why are notmany girls ambitious?
69. will a girl baby pick up a doll with equal probability as she picks up a car, it she is given choice and no apriori knowledge?
70. What makes babies' smile so cute?
71. why do men in Africa have guns in their handseven though they don't have food to eat?
72. why does US go and screw with every country in the world?
73. why do only few people get so fat and not others?
74. what is the difference between intelligence and knowledge?
75. who is better: intelligent a Knowledgeable person?
76. when would my hands be better?
77. why are men more attracted towards gambling?
78. why do people get addicted to anything?
79. what are the origins of music?
80. why should human's do about anything if nature is going to select who is best to survive?
81. why are civilizations at loggerheads with each other?
82. what is the meaning of a meaningful life?
83. If animals have instincts to kill and survive why are humans not allowed to do so?
84. what is 1% of DNA that makes us so different from apes?
85. would it ever be possible to replace a humanmind with a computer?
86. How did the concept of shoes come in to existence?
87. what makes parents take care of their children?
88. why is stock market crashing?
89. why do American car maker still make crappy mileage cars?
90. why does America still endorse gas guzzlers?
91. why is drinking beer ok in western countries, but considered bad in eastern countries?
92. why did martial arts so famous in the oriental?
93. why does a smile from loved one light yourheart?
94. where did the concept of poetry came from?
95. why are there so many divorced people is theUS?
96. why does The girl always get alimony in adivorce case?
97. Why are sexual relations so open in U.S.?
98. why are people so paranoid in trusting their neighbors?
99. why is sound life becoming so popular?
100. why did I do this exercise?