My first blog with my Tablet Pc!

Hurray!After a long wait I got my Tablet PC. In fact it's been 4 weeks since I've been waiting for this. I should say it is definitely worth the wait. Yes! I bought a Lenovo x61 Tablet PC! It took a while to decide which are to go for. There were couple of considerations while doing the research. They are:

1. It should hence good reviews.
2. It should be pretty light so that I can hold it and not hurt my hands. I already have tendonitis. I don't want to worsen it.
   
3. It should have in-built broadband connectivity possible. with this I can take discount offered by my company.
4. And of course, the price.

With these in mind I started my research. Where does one look for what they want? "Google." So, I googled for reviews on Tablet PCs. And that's how I ended up with Tablet PC reviews.com.
after going through the reviews it seemed like there are bunch of options : HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Fujitsu etc. I really liked Fujitsu but had to chuck it away since it neither had broadband connectivity nor is cheap. It is around $2700 But it some one can offer it, I guess that would be awesome.
I had to turn away from Toshiba even though it was good in price since it didn't have mobile broadband connectivity.I house to mention that Toshiba's site is well designed and their marketing videos are awesome. You can see them here
So it came down to HP and Lenovo.It turns out that both HP and lenovo have very similar things to offer Though HP was giving more hand drive. And Lenovo was giving better processor speed. I traded processor speed for hand drivenAlso Since their price is almost sameand the fact that I was getting Some discount from Employee purchase plan of IBM through trend of mine I had to go with Lenovo.
So here I am enjoying the beauty of tablet PC writing with my pen again and it is automatically getting converted to text. Awesome.
Somethings that I don't like about tablet PCs is that I didn't find any one of them having in built Cd-rom drive.
For someone waiting to buy a Tablet PC, do also consider buying a pen mouse or tablet mouse a Bamboo from WAcom I It would be around $200 and would hook up to USB. Any windows XP should be able to recognize handwriting, I guess. This way you can have the fun of having PC but still in cheap. You might am worry I didn't do that. wen it's been almost 3 yrs and I haven't availed of the discount on computer that my company gives.
Happy handwriting again!

Investing in Indian market from US

With Indian stock market doing so well, combined with the falling dollar value against rupee I thought it would make perfect sense in investing in Indian markets. So I ventured to find out what would be the most optimal/easiest way to do that. Here are my experiences along the way. I also gave some inputs on where to look for information on stocks, mutual funds and any other things you need. Please leave a comment if I missed something or if you need more information.
Ok! Here we go..

First thing we need is a bank to do trading. The most popular banks seem to be SBI, ICICI and HDFC. There are other banks like ABN-Amro that do provide NRI services but I couldnt get any information from their site regarding trading options.
SBI : State Bank of India.
I always liked State Bank of India for no particular reason. It could be because it is a government operated bank and I had an account in it since my undergraduate days. So I first started looking for information from SBI. Unfortunately I could not find any such information. All I could find is that you can open an account with them as NRE Rupee Account or Savings account etc. The rules for being an NRI are pretty simple. Here is what the definition is:
            "A Non Resident Indian (NRI) as per FEMA 1999 is an Indian citizen or Foreign National of Indian Origin resident outside India for purposes of employment, carrying on business or vocation in circumstances as would indicate an intention to stay outside India for an indefinite period.An individual will also be considered NRI if his stay in India is less than 182 days during the preceding financial year."
There is an SBI branch in San Diego. I thought may be I can call them up and find more information. I spoke to the representative and also the manager. The manager mentioned that I need to get an account directly with the branch in India and that these guys don't have any ties with them. ( huh? thought they are part of the same bank? ). Hence I had to call a "pass" on this bank. As expected their website is not all that great. It doesn't give much information on how we can invest in stocks or mutual funds from their bank. So I had to move on.

ICICI:
The second bank I liked is ICICI for the sole reason that is again an Indian bank. I believe ICICI n CItibank were at logger heads when I was India to gain the market. I badly wanted to take ICICI but I opted for Citibank for only two reasons. There was not ATM near my office and no ATM near my then home. So I started looking at their website, reading information but I could never find anything related to investing. They do have mutual funds which anyone can buy but the returns shown are meager. Good thing about ICICI is that they have live chat with some representative. I tried calling them and after couple of minutes (pretty fast huh?). I am not sure if there are real people on the other side or it is just a bot with a different name, but I chatted twice and both the times I got exact same answers, the same words. Either that, or they are given a set of question and answers and they just copy and paste the same. Anyway, they said due to RBI regulations they cannot let anyone NRI to do online trading. So I had to let it go and search for something else.

HDFC:
HDFC is the only bank where I could find some information about direct trading for NRIs. Apparently we need an NRE account to start off with and another thing called PIS called Portfolio Investment Scheme. Here we go, now I need to open NRE account. So I went to their website. Their website! I really think they need to redesign their website. The navigation and the coding is really bad. Anyone after a bit of research I got some forms to download, fill them and send them to their New York branch. Their forms were so damn confusing. They didnt have a help page to answer them. Anyhow I got the forms filled up (hope I filled them properly). I had to copy lot of stuff before I can send the whole application to their office. Two days after I sent the forms I get a mail from them asking me to respond to the email so that they can help me with the forms. Sweet! Cant they just put up a help page and be done with it? They can save so much of time by doing so and possibly cut down on some of the costs they incur in hiring few people.

So there you go! I am now waiting for the people to call me and let me know if my forms are correct and hoping that I would get my account opened.

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Oil drives the world!

Claim: Oil drives the world. Not just in the literal sense, but everything in the world is around oil. People who got oil have the highest say in the world.
Reasons:

1. Self-sustaining economies dont depend on oil or have their own oil production.
2. Saudi and oil giants are talking about revaluation of currencies since they got the oil and gives them the power to do so.
3. USA goes after countries that have oil and are not friendly with them.
4. USA literally licks asses of countries that have maximum oil.
5. When oil prices go high, everything in the market goes high.
6. Any country that wants to be independent should either find a substitute for oil for its energy or have very good relations with countries that have oil.
7. 70 % of India's oil consumption is imported. Unless India starts projects to replace oil dependency, it would become hard for India. A friend of mine mentioned that nuclear power would be great to use. Especially for industries we can use nuclear energy and its derivatives. But the problem is India doesnt have much of uranium. Thorium is abundant. India should invest in developing a technique to use thorium for nuclear energy generation. If we can do that, we would be a great self-dependent energy supplier and can boast our economy.

Qn: How % of oil is used in Indian industries? I remember that most of them generate the power through coal deposits in India. Atleast the coal is plenty is India. But it is projected that in 200-300 years the coal reserves in India will also deplete.
There is an imminent need to find alternate energy sources to keep the rising oil prices in check. Brazil invested massively in sugar based ethanol industry so much that 1/3rd of their vehicles now run on domestic grown fuel. India should also do that.
Sometimes I wish I would be in politics to get such reforms. I dont know, may be I would join politics sometimes later in life.

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Why is the front seat of car called shot gun seat?

Qn: Why is sitting in the front seat of car called a shot gun?

I have no clue why it is called so. Anyone has any thoughts on this? Please write in the comments section. I will incorporate in the main blog with your name by the side.
After some research on the web I found very interesting stuff.
Here is the answer from yahoo answers!
"It stems from the days of the stagecoaches when the wrangler would drive the coach and handle the horses and another would sit beside him with a shotgun for protection from robbers, Indians, etc. while the passengers sat behind inside the coach."

The article on wikipedia gives more details on when the first usage of the term was and dwelves into history and where it is first used.

Further reading revealed a game called shotgun. Courtesy http://www.shotgunguide.com/
General Rules
1) The first person to yell "SHOTGUN" gets to ride in the front seat.
2) The remaining back seats may be divvied up in the same manner by being the first to call "back right seat", etc..
3) The word "shotgun" must be loud enough to be heard by at least one witness. If no witness is to be found, or in case of a tie, the driver has the final word. After all, it is most likely his car. (note: if it isn't his car, and the owner is present, the owner's decision is final. Owner must be sober, however, or he will defer his judgment to the driver.)
4) Early calls are strictly prohibited. All occupants of the vehicle (including the driver) must be outside of the building and directly on the way to the vehicle before shotgun may be called. Under no circumstances may a person call shotgun inside a building. For sake of simplicity, a garage is considered to be outside. Parking structures and detached garages are always considered as being outdoors, even if they are underground.
5) A person may only call shotgun for one way of a trip. Shotgun can never be called while inside a vehicle or still technically on the way to the first location. For example, one can not get out of a vehicle and call Shotgun for the return journey.
6) Being as how everyone is created equal, men have the same right as women to the front seat of the car. i.e. women don't own the front seat.
7) One is allowed to ride shotgun as many times as he can call it, but for himself only. No one can call shotgun for their slower friend, unless the friend has a speech or mental handicap that prevents them from calling it for themselves.
8) The driver has final say in all ties and disputes. The driver has the right to suspend or remove all shotgun privileges from one or more persons.

For further rules, please see http://www.shotgunguide.com/

First Solo Flight - Oct 27th 2007

Yahoo... I just completed my first Solo Flight in my pilot training. It is awesome to fly the plane alone. Little anxious, confused, something different than you are used to, but eventually you land that plane right on the center line and there you go you did it. Having done the pattern work so many times, it is just another landing you would do. But the fun part of it is that you dont have anyone telling you what to do, you make every decision in getting that damn plane on ground. Boy I enjoyed it a lot. Let me show you what happens in a pattern. It is a lot of work happening really fast. From the take off to touch down it takes around 7 mins. In this, you need to change the throttle multiples times, change the trim tab for more than 3 times, turn 4 times, use right rudder pressure for a long time, need to be in contact with the tower, listen to their instructions, get the flaps down, and up once the touch down happens. Maintain the speed of 65mph when approaching the runway all the way till touch down. When just above few feet from the ground, you need to pull the yoke back and flair, let the plane settle and let it touch down. it is an awesome amount of work compensating for the wind all the way through.



I cannot fly if the winds are more than 4 kts. So I couldnt fly at the place where I generally fly. I went to Brown Field for Solo. It was cool. I am going solo in an airport where I havent been. Yes, it was exciting. My instructor and I went around the pattern couple of time, got familiar with the pattern. I left my instructor at the ramp and went back to runway to take off. There was another airplane ready to take off, but was going through their checklist. I called in the tower and told them I am ready to go. Tower asked me if I can go around the plane ahead of me. I said yes I can. Oh btw! A typical calls sounds like this "Brown Tower (people I want to talk to), this is Cessna 707GS (model and tail number of my plane, who i am), ready to take off (what i want)"
So I went around those people and jammed the throttle in, let the airspeed increase. While doing so, I had to compensate the left turning tendencies with right rudder pressure. When the airspeed reached 55-60mph, I pulled the yoke back and started climbing. And then I did the rest of the pattern as required. My first landing was good, though I thought that my base leg was not well placed. I tried a wider pattern to get a better base leg. It was much fun. I did three of these and went and picked up my instructor and we flew home. The controller at the Brown field congratulated me! Lot of people congratulated me on the way back to my base including Gillespie field's ground controller, GSA's manager etc.
Anyway, it was great fun soloing the plane. I am ready to go again.
Yahoooooooooooooooooooooo............

The Exceptional Presenter!

The Exceptional Presenter - Timothy J. Koegel

The Exceptional Presenter is a book by Timothy J Koegel. I have been looking for a book like this for a while, but never looked out for it. And with most of the things that happen, I found it in Hudson Bookstore in Dallas Airport while on a transit from NYC to San Diego. Here are my views on the book.
I think the book covers most of the details I have been looking for. It covers the points from what to cover to how to deliver, understanding your audience, body language and the feedback to watch for from the audience.
Koegel sums up an exceptional presenter should have six letter acronymn OPEN UP.
Organize - Look organized, poised and take charge of the presentation.
Passionate  - Display passion. Enthuse your audience and charge them up with yours.
Engaging - Engage the audience, ask questions, make eye contact, take their names.
Natural - Be natural, dont assume any unnecessary accent or fake smiles. Appear fully natural.
Understand your Audience - Know your audience, what they are looking for. Tailor the presentation to your audience. Know the cultural differences if required. Spend time on knowing what they are looking for.
Practice - Practice the presentation. The good old saying - "Practice makes a man perfect" holds good here too.
Here are some more main points and my takes on that.

The way you deliver the presentation is more important than the material you are presenting.
This is the main point that Koegel drills in the book. I would give a nod to it with the only addition being when presenting results, design for rocket science it is important to stress on the material in the presentation. No errors are accepted. Other than those, any motivational speech, any speech to fire up the audience, most of the business presentations can stick to the above line.
Even the technical intensive presentations should stress on the way the presentation is made. Body language plays a big role.

Standing is better than sitting
When we stand it is easier to make eye contact with everyone, bring more dynamics to the presentation, and move around to keep everyone engaged. You also assume a commanding position. Hands can be effectively used for communication while standing.

Make Eye contact with everyone
It is easier said than done. Making an eye contact with everyone in the audience is really difficult. But make eye contact give a smile, move to the next person.

Arrive earlier to the presentation place
Arriving earlier gives you time to set up everything and have a dry run to see everything goes as planned. This applies especially if you are using online tools. You may not have internet, wireless may not be working. Expect glitches and be prepared.

Use the charts as visual cues
Dont look at the slides as you speak. Use them as visual cues to start your story. Organize them well and have a good flow.

Open dialogue and engage
Have an opening dialogue. Few suggested are:

• My objective today is ---------
• My understanding of your position is.....
• I am here to present...
• Open with a quote, statistic, question, etc. what ever to get attention. A friend of mine once opened his ship wreck speech with "ladies and gentlemen and the very beautiful girl at that corner" of course there was none at that corner, but it did get their attention.

Observe your body language
Assume a relaxed hands position with your hands by the sides of your body. This is supposed to be the best position. When you see presidential debates, observe how they assume their body language. Square up your audience, face them straight and answer their questions. Use hands to show the increase, decrease, lot, few etc.

Observe audience body language
Observing audience can be a valuable tool to change your pace, volume, modulation, and regaining audience attention. An average attention span is 15-25 sec. Do whatever it takes to regain the attention. Take their names, ask if the concept is clear.

There are more good points in the book. Anyone who wants to become an exceptional presenter should read the book. You can get the book from Amazon

I found that the book answers most of the questions. But I thought the book didnt address most of the challenges engineers and designers face. Any tips on this regards are most welcome.
Please write your comments and your own techniques you used for your presentations.

Disclaimer: All the points given are my own observations reading the book. Please read the book for the original comments.

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Lets help each other!

Hi friends,

How are you doing? Hope you all are in the best of your health and spirits. The reason for this post is that I solicit your help in a small project I am working on. Please read on for details.

We sure spent/spend quite a number of hours in planning for a long weekend trip or any other trip. In most cases, we would call friends in or around the city where we plan to visit and get their inputs about the things we are interested in. With this information, we make an itinerary, find hotels, book cars/air-tickets, get maps etc and we are on our way.

If we don't have a friend, we would search on net for hours to come up with a good itinerary, but we still have a concern about how it would turn out. Obviously, it takes more energy and time to plan using Internet, not to mention the lower confidence in itinerary.

We faced the hassle quite a few times and came up with the idea of making a simple webapp which can help us out. Basically what it does is build on the knowledge of people who have already been to these places and give you real advice you can use. Eg. I have put in few of the places you can visit around San Diego as he knows it best. So if any of you want to visit San Diego, you can use the information put in by me to make your decisions.

Right now the application is pretty simple but we are aiming to make it more sophisticated so that when you ask - "Hey! I got two days vacation and want to visit San Diego and I am interested in beach activities, could you tell me what places I should be visiting" and you get a nice itinerary with attractions to visit, approximate time it takes to cover each attraction and suggestions on where you could stay etc. We would like to share our experiences of our trips so that we can help our friends in planning their trips. In this regard we solicit your inputs on the trips you must have been to, you planned to or any other information you could provide us.

To make it easier for you to enter the details, please use the following site:

http://svn-rknowsys.no-ip.info:28333/

Please help us in:
1. Gathering information/interesting tour details you must have had. Please provide as much details as possible.
2. Gathering feedback on the information collection forms/method used.
3. Any other improvements and any suggestions on what could be of value to you in planning your next trip.

All you have to do is go to the web-site and fill in the details of places you know best. For Eg. KC lives in Hyderabad and can fill in information about Charminar, Golconda, other historical places (and there are many) in and around Hyderabad.

We appreciate your help in advance. Please contact either

Suresh(mrdsureshkumar@gmail.com) or

KC(kcramakrishna@gmail.com) if you have any questions.

Please pass on to other friends who you think might be able to help us.

Thanks
Suresh