G-mail

The user interface for managing posts on BLOGGER has changed. It is neat. Blogger also has a promotion on its website for active bloggers (atleast thats what it said) for subscribing to G-mail. Blogger is owned by Google. It is amazing that one has 1000 MB of free storage. Wonder how this will impact Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail. If G-mail has IMAP, then it would be neat to read the messages on Outlook/mail client. One more thing I like is that since this is just in the beta version, the probability of getting a mail-id of one's choice is high, like the one I got today. With Yahoo!, you almost never get it before 5/6 tries and it isn't quite what you would have wanted.

The Road Ahead
Uncertainty has been a certain part of our lives for the past 2 years. Location,duration is almost never known until the last minute. And that didn't give too many choices, so we have been going with the ride.
I'm not quite sure what lies ahead. The thought of giving up all of this is making me really sad. I will miss this, the past 9 months has been the best part of the past 5 years, despite all the crazy stuff that demands a lot. I keep telling myself that I don't care and want to go back, hoping it will make quitting easier but it isn't working :(

Anyways, so this week has been really busy because of Vinay's visit. Next week, dad should be here by now. It is going to be great for a month.

Happy birthday!
Today is Vivek's Birthday. Happy Birthday :)

I talked and listened to so much technical stuff today that my head still hurts. It helped to an extent to keep my mind off the whole incident, however not completely - I'm still feeling bad. Despite all our efforts, no hope of recovering any of it.
Took my bike to work for the first time today. It was fun on lower Wacker Drive, not knowing where to go!
Vinay got me a book by R.KNarayan titled The Painter of signs. He is best known for The Malgudi Days. The serial was a brilliant portrayal of the book and an instant hit. After all who wouldn't remember the characters played by Anant Nag, Girish Karnad - brings back fond childhood memories of all those nice serials - the only 30 min time during the day when we kids were allowed to watch TV.

Spring is finally here- it looks like Spring and feels like one too. I came here around the same time last year and it was cold in Boston and raining all the time. However, it is so beautiful here and that is the only best part about this weekend. I wish V was here this weekend. Whenever he is here, it is cold.
I don't want to remember this weekend. Coming to terms with reality was tough. Ignoring it by thinking it didn't happen to us was foolishness. After all there are very bad people in this world who do really mean things. It is stupid on one's part to trust anybody just like that. I was really upset and very sad yesterday about the huge loss. I am trying to come to peace with it - took a long bike ride along the lake shore, went to meet a friend today - diversion is helping. Need to stay away from the comp so as NOT to remind myself about it.

Internet Fraud

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."
-- Vernon Law


Now we know what this quote exactly means after being burnt badly.
If you are trading online, always keep in mind these important points before buying anything:

1. Do not get carried away by the credentials of the seller - it can be faked easily.
2. Do not be involved in direct transactions with the seller, if you are outbid on e-bay.
3. Always pay thr PayPal and not in cash or wired transfers such as Western Union or Money Gram.
4. Avoid transactions with sellers who are helping/obliging more than is required.
5. Be extra careful when transacting for goods of very high value.
6. Get the contact details of the seller and speak to the seller before paying up.
7. Do not always pay in full if directly dealing with the seller unless you receive the item.

Read more on Fraud Tips here:

The recent experience has reaffirmed my faith in brick and mortar stores.

A Year of Blogging
It is exactly a year today since I started blogging. It will continue to stay a personal journal with a small/no audience. I have taken down comments since I don't really expect to see one.

The Apprentice

The Apprentice - 215,000 applicants, 16 shortlisted contestants, featuring in 15 episodes, 1 getting fired every week, finally 1 getting hired. Whoever wins the Apprentice gets a chance to run one of Donald Trump's companies and to make enough money for 2 generations. The 15 episode Business reality show aired on NBC every Thursday @ 8 P.M CST, features Donald Trump assigning tasks ranging from selling a lemonade to renting Marquis jet for a day. One task very week leading to the poor performer (1 every week) getting fired. The performance was judged based on inputs from rest of the team mates but the decision on who to fire was solely made by Trump. All the episodes were packed with action and real drama. I don't know how much of it was edited/censored. The final episode aired today live on NBC. It was indeed a tough decision. The competition was tight between the two final contestants - Bill Rancic, a Chicago entrepreneur and Kwame Jackson, an investment banker who worked for Goldman Sachs. They quit their high profile jobs to participate in the TV show least knowing what was in store for them.

The Apprentice is Bill. He heard the words "You're hired". The final episode didn't have the trademark words "You're fired". Bill is the apprentice now, with a lucrative salary of $250,000. For a while I thought Kwame would get hired. Kwame's laid-back attitude under high pressure and good performance despite a not-so-good team as Bill's appealed to me. He never once showed signs of tension or nervousness. He also did not get to the nerves of his people by checking on whether the job is done or not every 10 mins. As George said, these are traits that come handy in the long run . Perhaps the biggest factor that got him fired was his faith in Omarosa. It is really surprising that given a choice of people one would have chosen Omarosa and Heidi. Kwame's choice of his team members costed him the job. Bill was smart enough to have chosen ALL the best people - Nick, Amy and Katrina - all of whom were recently fired.

Bill's performance was good as always but as his teammates said he was getting on to their nerves by following up on everything too frequently - it was probably the pressure to perform well.

Once Bill was hired, he was asked to choose between two amazing offers. He had 3 minutes to make the decision. The first one was to supervise the operations of Trump International Hotel that would rise where Chicago-Sun times stands today, thus redefining the Chicago skyline. The second was to oversee operations of a Golf Course in LA. Both were (supposedly) equally challenging but as on would expect Bill made the obvious choice of staying @ Chicago with the Trump International Hotel. Last August, when I first read about this project there was a mention that the initial plans (before 2001) were for 107 floors making it among the tallest buildings in the world. However for obvious reasons, it wouldn't stand so tall now.
NBC.com web site is probably experiencing high traffic now after the "The Apprentice" show is over as the response time is significantly high.

Added this section on 04/17/04
The Other side of "The Apprentice":
BBC's view
Views of a blogger

In other news, in exactly 2 weeks from now, dad would be here.

Today's weather is spring-like for real and a big relief from the 30s of the past 1 week. After work, I rode my bike along the lake shore. I should probably do it everyday. I am currently reading a book titled "Coincidence" by David Ambrose (a unknown book from a not-so-famous author). However what I came across in it was the similarities between JFK and Lincoln assassinations that I wasn't aware of before.

Reading Time

Right now, it is at the trough point of the sine curve at work! Not long before it goes crazy. Caught up on my reading ..here are a few good articles on Forbes

1. G-mail - the web based mail from Google. The fact that it was announced on April 1 had most people thinking it was a April Fool's joke! I heard from someone about the privacy issues that Google is facing as it retains all the e-mails. Didn't think it was real until I read this one.

2. Tips on surviving the office party. If it were not for an incident at recent party, I wouldn't have posted this link. It is sad that some people get so drunk as to lose their control. This is so true - "the office party is still a business function. You can't ever let down your guard. Even though the setting is a little more personal, you're not with friends."

3. The 25 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies I'm happy to see CTS in the list!

I am having the most amazing weekend in a really long time. V got me a 26-inch bike yesterday and all the accessories too. It will be fun to ride the bike to work everyday. It was too cold along the lakefront this morning and it took a while to get back to senses after staying out in the cold that long!

We met R, P and P over dinner last night. They are such a fun group and I love meeting them. I introduced V to them and I'm glad they all enjoyed each other's company. We got cute Easter presents from them :)