Earth Day, Going Green and the Little Things

The Earth Day went by this week. Lots of people talked about lots of big ideas and initiatives - good soundbytes, little action. Everyone's talking about energy related issues - the extinction of cheap hydrocarbons, the lack of progress on renewables, etc.

One of the thing that amazes me is the low attention that another environment issue - which is at least as important if not more - that is the amazing waste of water and drought affecting most of the highly populated metropolitan centers around the world.

At the same time, the green crowd goes around drinking Evian and Dassani and Perrier.

Drinkable tap water is a great asset that any developed nation has. USA has had the advantage of having this resource for over a century now. Yet, there is no stopping the trend towards bottled water. Most of it is driven by high visibility advertising that has made bottled water a part of the fashion cuisine. And it's partly driven by fear mongering - creating scare about municipal water; even though in many lab tests, tap water usually beats bottled water in all areas - not only purity but also taste.

I think the Dutch have the right idea about it - there a voluntary agency is selling empty bottles branded as Neau - patrons buy these empty bottles at about the same price that they would pay for a Dassani and then they fill up with refreshing tap water. The money generated by sales of Neau is being used to provide basic potable water infrastructure in poor countries.

http://www.finewaters.com/Newsletter/November_2005/Neau_-_No_Water.asp

http://www.slate.com/id/2165124/fr/rss/

Outsource the Government

You could see it coming for a long time - someone had to do a good satire on this in public - and who better than Scott Adams to attempt this!

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/04/outsource_the_g.html

Scott's post displays both a frustration with the level of incompetence in our Government today and also his well-established history of incisive, yet humorous skepticism of outsourcing as the answer to everything.

Unfortunately, some people seem to have taken his post too seriously. But it does make for a good piece of humor on a Friday and provokes some thoughts about public policy at the same time.

Stephen Colbert - The Greatest Living American

This one is too good to be true - I am sure it won't last too long.

When you search for "greatest living american" - Stephen Colbert's fans' website - http://www.colbertnation.com tops the search results. Obviously, this is the result of Colbert's huge fan following in the blogosphere, some of whom figured out a way to bomb Google. You might remember another Google bomb from a couple of years back when searching for "miserable failure" led to George Bush's website. It lasted for some time before Google tweaked their algorithm. I guess they couldn't make their algorithm foolproof - so we have another Google Bomb now.

Click here to check the search results yourself on Google.

An interesting reflection : Slow Down Culture

This one has been making the rounds on the Net - has already been published on various blogs, etc. I don't know where it originated - if you have any clue, do leave me a comment. I am posting it here 'cause I found it very thought provoking. Thanks Mohit for sending me this email.

"An interesting reflection : Slow Down Culture

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo , a state in Brazil .
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm , has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden , one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US 's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world."

Of Cynics and Idealists

"Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves."
- Robert Anton Wilson

So which one are you?

YAHOO GO FOR WINDOWS MOBILE REALLY SUCKS

Has anyone tried this abomination called Yahoo Go? It really, really sucks. Seems like Yahoo can't get anything right these days.

I need a miracle to recover my investment in Yahoo. Anyone out there who expects it to touch 35 AGAIN?

Indian hopes dashed - nation eats humble pie

A nation is crestfallen today. The high flying "Team India" had to eat humble pie as the Lankans handed them their return tickets.

I hope they will do away with this "TEAM INDIA" nonsense. Why can't they just call them the Indian cricket team?

And while they're at it, maybe they can stop using the term "India, Inc." in the Indian business media too. Let's relearn the basic Indian virtue of humility while we're still at the top of our game.

*This entry was posted from my Windows Mobile phone.

The Worst Cube-Dwelling Offenses

For me this one takes the cake!

Nuclearization and Indian National Identity

A very good analysis of the Indian identity that resulted in nuclearization and the subsequent impact of nuclearization back on the Indian identity. Do listen to the .mp3 file that is available on this page.

Hazy view of Mission Peak

Hazy view of Mission Peak from my Fremont office

Thought of the day

"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." - Sam Walton

The Dilbert Blog: The Specialness Quotient

The Dilbert Blog: The Specialness Quotient: "One type of intelligence that I never hear discussed – and might be the most important one – is the degree to which you believe you are “special.” Or to put it bluntly, the more special you believe you are, the stupider you are."

Is Scott the most insightful person of our age? He comes up with such keen observations on life and people around us - things that are bothering you but you're not quite able to put them into an intellectual argument.

You must subscribe to Scott's blog if you haven't already done so. I think his comic strip is great but his blog is sometimes beyond amazing.

technorati tags: dilbert, scott+adams, special, psychology, philosophy, stupid

If telecommuting is so easy, why do we travel for work more than ever? - By Tim Harford - Slate Magazine

If telecommuting is so easy, why do we travel for work more than ever? - By Tim Harford - Slate Magazine:

Tim makes some excellent observations in this piece. His analogy of the unfulfilled telecommuting phenomenon with the pipe dream of a paperless office really struck home.

I truly agree with him that mobile phone and email are not a substitute to face-to-face meetings but a complement to it.

Here's to our Airlines Miles!

technorati tags: airline+miles, travel, telecommuting, paperless+office, mobile

Brain Teaser

Imagine you are in a room with 3 switches. In an adjacent room there are 3 bulbs (all are off at the moment), each switch belongs to one bulb. It is impossible to see from one room to another. How can you find out which switch belongs to which bulb, if you may enter the room with the bulbs only once?

Leave your answer in the comments - I will post the solution in a couple of days.

Learn Your Kids' Language

Finding it difficult to understand what your kids are saying on SMS, IM, etc? Well, here's a quick cheat sheet:

http://www.ebuddy.com/lingo.php

CIO (Check it Out) :-)

Sensitive data dumped at recycling center by Indian Consulate in San Francisco

As if the incident itself was not bad enough, the consulate officials went on to put their proverbial feet in their mouths with quotations like:

- "As we see it, the documents are not confidential," said B.S. Prakash, the consul general. "We would see something as confidential if it has a Social Security number or a credit card number, not a passport number."

- At the Indian Consulate, Consul General Prakash said there may be a cultural dimension to the level of outrage related to the incident among Western visa applicants.
"In India, I would not be alarmed," he said. "We have grown up giving such information in many, many places. We would not be so worried if someone had our passport number."

- Deputy Consul General Sircar said that in other countries, Indian officials are able to go to the roofs of their offices and burn documents they're no longer able to store.
"In America, you cannot do that," he said.

At a time when Indian IT and BPO companies are going out of their way to assure their customers that their intellectual property, customer data and other confidential information is secure with them, this will come as quite a shock.

But to blame it on Indian culture is outright dumb. We expect much better judgment from our foreign service officials.

Index of Economic Freedom - Wall Street Journal

This is the kind of crap you get when you take on such research based on so called "objective" criteria. I mean, how do you justify Saudi Arabia having more economic freedom than India? And Pakistan? And Tajikistan? And Cambodia? I mean, "Freedom" is an alien concept in most of these societies.

You can download the full report card here.

technorati tags: economic, freedom, wall+street+journal, india, pakistan, saudi+arabia

DMS: the Indian angle - Express Computer

DMS: the Indian angle - Express Computer: "DMS: the Indian angle"

"New-found enthusiasm among government organisations to leverage IT as an enabler for their growth is propelling DMS adoption. Vendors foresee an opportunity in providing state-of-the-art products and solutions to Indian enterprises that are setting up offices abroad, as well as to MNCs coming to India. The rapid growth in telecom, manufacturing and retail has added fuel to this fire. The telecom sector expects to tap 500 million consumers by 2010. Forecasts Diwakar Nigam, MD, NewGen, “Greater storage capabilities and tools for automated management of data, increased demands of mobile users, integration of other enterprise applications with the DMS, superior workflow capabilities providing quick access to voluminous information such as high-quality video and pictorial data (in addition to the traditional documents flow), and last but not the least, compliance, will drive the market in India.”

Things are really hotting up in the Indian market - and Document Management is an idea whose time has really come. ‘‘Owing to the large number of public sector enterprises, which are still paper-based, there is considerable scope for DMS in India. Due to continuous geographical expansion and the launch of new operations, enterprises are demanding solutions to manage their massive amount of content, both structured and unstructured.’’ says Diwakar Nigam, Managing Director, Newgen Software.

technorati tags: ECM, Enterprise+Content+Management, Document+Management, Newgen+Software, Diwakar+Nigam

BlackBerry Orphans - WSJ.com

A good wake up alarm - at this time of the year when you are likely to be in a reflective mood - particularly with respect to work-family balance. I guess like all fads, this too will pass - after a while you do realize that if you receive an email on Saturday evening at 7:00 pm, you don't have to reply it then - nothing's gonna happen till Monday morning anyway. You might as well ignore it and go on having quality time with your family. Then Monday morning when you get to work, fire up your Outlook and start replying.

To me it seems like a vicious cycle - someone sends you an email at an odd time - you are tempted to respond immediately - I don't know why - to show you're a busy person, you are always on, you're hip to mobile technology, you are always connected, you've go the latest tech gadgets, etc, - then you do the same with someone and so on and the cycle continues. I guess if enough people decided this new year's day to break this obsessive compulsive behavior, the cycle might break a little.

technorati tags: GTD, BlackBerry, OCD, Obsessive+Compulsive

How to use a personalized email address with Google Gmail

You love the ease of using Gmail - but you already have a personalized email account on your own domain - e.g. mail@yourname.com, or yourname@yourbusinessname.com, etc. Wouldn't it be fantastic to combine the advantages of both? Here's a DIY (Do It Yourself) guide to do it this holiday season - and it doesn't cost a dime:

1. Create a Google Gmail account.

2. Get the host for your domain to change your email address from a pop address to a forwarding address. If you have access to your hosting configuration, you can usually do it yourself. Please be careful doing this - it does lead to a short window of breakdown - when your email stops working temporarily. Best time to do it is over weekends if you are a business.

3. Forward your email address (from Step 2) to the new Gmail address you created in Step 1.

4. Go into the Settings tab of your Gmail interface in the web browser and then to the Forwarding and Pop Tab. You need to Enable Pop Access here and Archive Gmail's copy after accessing from POP client. That way your emails will always be available through Gmail (that is, till you run out of the 2GB free space)

5. Click on the Configuration Instructions link to follow directions for setting up your POP Email client - Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc. Remember to set your SMTP to the one that Google provides -that way your outgoing emails are also archived in your Gmail account - thus your Gmail account serves as a foolproof instantaneous archive of all your emails.

6. Sometimes you want to use the browser interface of Gmail to send emails (say when you are on a public access kiosk, etc. at an airport, convention, etc.). However you would still like to send out the emails using your personalized address - not you Gmail address. Gmail provides for this also. Go to the Settings->Accounts tab in Gmail and set your personalized account there. Also, don't forget to put in your signature in the General tab - it saves you a lot of typing.

7. This setup works great from your mobile phone also - Gmail is now accessible not only through smartphones, but pretty much any Java capable phone with a data connection. Now you can receive and send emails from your personalized account using any phone.

technorati tags: Google, Gmail, Yahoo, email, pop, pop3, free, disaster+recovery, online+backup, smtp, life+hacks, GTD, Computer+tips+and+tricks