My Article...

I have co-authored an article on how IT can play a significant role in achieving business cost optimization and increased agility and have listed down few things CIOs should embark upon. If you find it interesting, discuss it here...

Learn from Melbourne...

Melbourne is doing something that really excited me. They are putting up bicycle stands for people to take the bike for short to medium distance travel. See one stand above... It is a great idea for people that come to office in car or public transport to use these for small distances. You can leave it at next stand. There is a fee for use and longer usage plans are available.

One thing that I think should be included is helmet rental. I wanted to try out one but was told by a passerby that helmets are required for usage. I am a visitor. Why would I roam around with a helmet around my back?

Inception - great movie to watch

Finally, I would say their is a film this year, that I enjoyed thoroughly. One of the best movies ever made. If you haven't seen it, go watch in theaters while you still can.

I like to watch movies on big screen but time constraints and small release window mean that you should be a continuous lookout for good movies and follow them closely to meet their release schedule. It has happened to me more than once that movie I wanted to watch came to India in a period, when I was in USA and the movie was no longer in theaters in USA. Perhaps, for people like me, global release within days of each other helps a lot. Anyone listening...

Outliers.. an interesting read

Just finished reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. A really well complied book and fascinating analysis. Given my slow pace and (lack of) commitment to reading, I did well to finish the book in under 3 months. But the book kept its attention thorough out the period and I keep returning to it whenever the book reading itch got to me.

I like the depth and must confess that similarity of analysis between the way I contemplate and the way he has done. Perhaps, that's what kept me at it. I would recommend this to anyone who care to think different...

180 Pounds and Falling

I have finally hit the scales at less than 180 pounds. The long term weight trend is now bearish. There was a medium strength pull in last couple of days but yesterday's fall has taken me below 180 mark and also established that the trend is continuing to be bearish. I have lost 7 pounds in last 7 weeks and I used to weigh as much as 212 pounds at some time. But those days are gone... I still remain a foodie and perhaps have to work on it more to go further.

Reducing weight is pretty much like traveling close to speed of light. For acceleration, you need to spend more fuel than what you spent previously. (and for additional weight loss, you need to exercise more than previously) And like there is a limit to how much fast you can go, there is a limit to how much final weight loss you can achieve...

Moving iTunes collection from Windows XP to Windows 7

I have just moved my collection from XP to Win 7 verbatim ... complete with all playlists, ratings and play counts. Thought of sharing the various steps I did to make it happen. It is easy enough if you can do basic copying.

First, move your complete collection to a portable drive .. say F: (and let iTunes manage the collection).

Backup your My Music folder as well as your Document and Settings folder in XP. (generally found under C:\Documents and Settings\...)

Next install iTunes on your Win 7 box. Pretty straight forward.

Start iTunes and deselect all auto search et al. You have a clean iTunes installation. Close down iTunes. Wait for few minutes to ensure that it has exited completely.

Next Follow These...

1. Copy "C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" from XP backup to "C:\Users\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" in Win 7.

2. Copy "C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" from XP backup to "C:\Users\yourusername\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes" in Win 7. (this look identical but notice Local Settings in path.

3. Copy "My Music\iTunes" (from my documents backup in win xp) to "My Music\iTunes" in Win 7 Libraries.

In above steps, replace with your user name (yourusername) in corresponding operating systems. Also, if you are like me, you would have moved My Documents from default location to separate drive. Remember to change the path accordingly.

Now start iTunes again.

All your music, playlists and settings are back. As if nothing happened.

Note that if you are in different systems, the path to removable drive should be same (such as F:) in both systems. Change the system drive letters, if need be to achieve this. Choose a path that is rarely used such as letters from M: / N: / O: etc.

Good Luck...

Changing Face of India, or, is it?

The new version of old DD classic national integration song "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" (old one, new part 1, part 2) has been released on Zoom. What a waste...

The new version lacked the soul and essence of old in spite of being 3 times longer. Not sure what are they trying to depict. None of the so called "heroes" are in a single frame. They don't want to share screen with each other and you are trying to depict national integration? I don't understand what is Karan Johar doing in this. At least, old one had 3 top actors of that time in single screen shot. Unity shows. You don't have to sing or act. It reflects.

Also, India is much beyond *ollywoods and musicians. We have great sports persons across shooting, chess, hockey and many other beside cricket, great scientists, great industrialists, great entrepreneurs, great social workers, great war heroes and of course, great politicians! And to say that none of the current living souls in India would qualify on proper merits and fill such a national integration song with bogus screen artistes is an insult to Indian citizens and India.

How much low would media go to gain TRPs and exploit us as a nation? We anyway don't have a news channel and I have to rely on BBC world to get meaningful news. We have horrible movie channels that elongate a 2.5 hour entertainment into 4 hr painful experience. And I have to pay to watch this s**t. I'm sick of Neo Cricket for not allowing us to see replays and watch the game on full TV with their cricket-in-an-ad broadcasts.

Capitalism is good, Capitalism-with-curry-and-tadka is bad. But perhaps this is what happens when Indians do it...

What is "Outsource"?

Obama vows to fight "outsourcing" and using tax credits as one of the means. I don't know why...

Does he plan to put tax burden on companies that "import" finished and unfinished goods from outside US. Creation of toilet paper is outsourced to China. Creation of T-Shirts are outsourced to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Creation of numerous clothing is outsourced to China and to other countries. To me, outsourcing of manufacturing is equivalent to outsourcing of IT services. If Obama is serious, he should find the grass root problems and fix them. What is the additional value add that a highly paid US worker brings over meagerly paid people elsewhere?

GM Diet Final Day

Well, it isn't working the way it supposed to be or hyped to be. I'm still 194 pounds on Day 7. Don't know if it was worth trying. Today is the final day and it is past lunch time... whatever "lunch" there it is...

After six and a half days, I'm still the same. Some people say that I look thinner but scale does not agree...

The most difficult part so far on this diet to me is 10 glasses of water every day. It is cold over here and you don't feel like drinking water that too at a rate of 1 glass every hour...

GM Diet Day 5

Till now, I'm able to follow the veg version of GM Diet. But I cheated today with a cup of tea, a la Indian, with sugar and milk.

Haven't seen much weight loss by this diet. Today morning I tipped the scales at 193 pounds. This is within the tolerance limit of original weight by measuring scale so could be that. Also, it is within the natural fluctuation of body weight so difficult to attribute this to diet plan (It could be also said that I lost more but the scale is showing positive variance).

However, I am now starting to disagree with the diet plan given in above link. If I do succeed in some weight loss, I'll evolve my own variant...

My natural fluctuation in body weight over the years has been between 80 to 90 kg (176 to 198 pounds). It is winter and a couple of kg less in this season may translate into natural shift to leaner me...

Let time be the witness...

GM Diet Day 1

Today is my first day for a new week-long diet plan. Let's see how this one goes. I'm also under medication for back pain. I hope that will not interfere with dieting...

Starting Weight: 196 pounds.