A Common GOAL

Looking back to this year i see some questions like,
What was your new year resolution ? & Were you able to achieve that ? blah blah..
Do you even remember you had a new year resolution, which you had decided upon and forgot the very next day of the year..

If nothing of these, then you sure are a person who will achieve Greatness!

Last week i had been to Amchi Mumbai. While i was on a visit to this amazing city, i saw people
( horde of people ) moving at quite a brisk rate from one place to another.
I could not see, even an iota of them lingering around, which made me think about the way WE Humans are going about things.
Everybody ( a human being ) has a common goal, maybe a short term or otherwise, may be the one he has decided or otherwise, but he sure has one.

What about Human Beings as one ? what about Earth ?
WE never ever seem to have a COMMON GOAL for ALL OF US .
We DO have GOALS :
1. at individual levels
2. at group levels ( company / firm )
3. at family levels
and so on..

WHAT ABOUT COMMON OBJECTIVEs for MANKIND ?
Where are we heading ? Do we have a focussed objectives for development of technology / environment ?
Even if we do have. During everyday work what we tend to see is short term and not the wider picture that we all are a part of .

Is a person REALLY great ?

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)


Does a person become great because he is destined to be ? Does a person's ability make him reach his greatness ?
OR
Is it the events in his/her life that make him so ?

I have more or less been seeing people achieving greatness because the events made them so, the surroundings in which they grew up were conducive for becoming so.

Recently, i read Biography of Indira Gandi by Pupul Jaykar, and am reading General Mckinshaw's autobiography.
What is it that makes a great person / an icon ?
As in cricket they say, the timing needs to be perfect to hit the ball !

Is it all the timing and the up bringing of the person that matters ?

All that matters is " Being at the right place at the right time !"

Engineering - Is It really so ?

huh !

So finally after giving the final semester exams for my Bachelor of Engineering Degree
i was forced to give a serious thought of my being QUALIFIED as an ENGINEER.

SCOTT ADAMS in The Dilbert Principle ( Collins )
" Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet. "

How true (?)
Quite true.. atleast giving the excuse that, its not complete yet is quite easy then..

I Still Dream of Jeanie

I remember watching "I Dream of Jeanie" on Sony Television, India many years back..
It was and surely will be one of the best TV Serials to be aired ever on an Indian Television.

Here are links for downloading IDOJ - Best TV Serial Ever

First Part
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Seventh
Eighth
Nineth
Tenth
Eleventh
Twelveth
Thirteenth
Fourteenth
Fifteenth
Sixteenth
Seventeenth
Eighteenth
Nineteenth
Twenty
Twenty One
Twenty Two
Twenty Three
Twenty Four
Twenty Five
Twenty Six
Twenty Seven
Twenty Eight
Twenty Nine
Thirty

Password:xsharex.info
If required.

These links obtained with from : Thanks

THINK

"Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great."

- Mark Twain

Link

Red Hat ! !

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=72757&cat_id=580

Red Hat and IIT Mumbai have announced that they will be working together to support and spread open source programming skills among engineering colleges, MCA programs, and other institutions.

Through the Red Hat Scholarships Program and the new collaborative learning program, the duo intend to open-up newer avenues for Indian students to acquire the open source experience.

The Red Hat Scholarships Program 2006-07 will operate under the aegis of the eKALAVYA program set-up by the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT, IIT Mumbai. In its third year of operation, the Red Hat Scholarships program is designed to prove handy to students looking for guidance on software development projects that form part of their annual submissions.

The collaborative program set up by the two organizations is geared to allow students to sign-up online for open source projects, seek advice from mentors in the open source community, find projects they can participate in, download open source software and get information on programming standards and guidelines. The collaborative program generally aims at equipping engineering students with the necessary open source skills.

Prizes worth Rs 20 lakhs will be awarded to students and mentors participating in the program. In addition, special recognition awards including best participation from a women's team, best participation from a rural college, etc, have been instituted. The college bagging the largest number of project submissions will receive a Red Hat Academic Bundle.

Javed Tapia, president, Red Hat Indian Subcontinent, said, "The National Knowledge Commission, a premiere body constituted by the Prime Minister that advises on how India can promote excellence in the education system, has recently recommended that India must use open source software in education to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century. Open source will play a huge part in building India's IT infrastructure, and we have to ensure that the next generation is ready for this. The Red Hat Scholarship program's primary objective is to ensure that Indian students are familiar
with the open source philosophy, development model and software tools. We are happy to work with IIT Mumbai in this initiative."

Prof D B Phatak and Subharao M Nilekani, chair professor and head - KreSIT, IIT Mumbai, said, "Today, in several parts of India, students and teachers often struggle to keep pace with the latest developments in technology. Though talented, they lack resources, experience and exposure, and competent guidance. We are thrilled to team with Red Hat, and ensure that Indian students are exposed to open source technology."

Visit http://www.in.redhat.com/community/rhscholarship.php
for additional information.

Howard Roark

From the Fountain Head,
From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction,
from the wheel to the skycraper, everything we are and everything we have
comes from a single attribute of man - the function of his reasoning mind.

The Final Year Project ! !

Huh ! !

Was such an EXPERIENCE working on the Final Year Bachelor of Engineering Project !
We, i.e
Chinmay A Limaye - THE person ( people who know him very well know that there in no word to describe this person )
Niranjan Hasabnis - Again another THE i guess :-)
Nikhil Firke - NO WORDS ! !
and myself worked at Persistent Systems Private Ltd. on Feature Enhancement of Asterisk PBX, and did some intresting ( meaning : Whatever , but not really the expected meaning ) work on IP based Private Branch Exchange..
i wont go into the technical details ( was there anything that we did technically ??? -- better ask my partners because i do not think we did any ! )
ok ok.. so the journey began way back in January 2005... all set to form groups for the final year ! first i was gonna do project with Adish - Mwanko Mbuki
Saket - Jester
Amar - Infinity ! ( sister of Trinity ../ He is a guy )
but then things turn out that we get selected for interviews at GS labs.. but unfortunately do not clear it...
i get selected for Persistent .. and then we 4 do the so called project !
Meanwhile we did get selected at different places for interviews like Codito, Concepts... but then we decided to work at PSPL..
What an experience it was ! ???
After the event Impetus & Concepts we do regret to an extent for working at PSPL.
Not that we did not get recognition for the project.. but the overall experience was not as rewarding as it was for our fellowmates...
we ( Nikhil , me and Nirya ) did try for projects on N/W and O.S. related stuff.. but ... Neway...
We would have very well liked to be getting some offers from SMALL companies.. Remember we did get recognition... but not the way we wanted ...
We learned a LOT in terms of working on a project and some issues of dealing with THE MAN ( Chinmay ) but . .. at the back of mind there still is that unsatsfied self .
( i do plan to put my words together and then write about THE MAN soon.... )

Hope i continue it from here..

always i try to continue posting on this regularly but some how i cannot ! !

too lazy... i guess.. or not too committed to writing...
anyway.. i think i will certainly try to be more regular on this stuff !


Cheers !!