Saturday, April 29, 2006

Big Ideas from France

Quaero
A Franco-German project to create a search engine. Its budget will be €450-million over five years, including €90-million in subsidies

BioHub
A €98-million investment in a "bio-refinery" that can use starch to create plastics and food additives

NeoVal
The successor to Val, the automatic metro. It will use an energy-storage technology allowing the train to recharge itself at every station

Unlimited Mobile TV
Satellite and cellphone technology to allow TV viewing from a cellphone

Home
A Schneider Electric initiative for extremely energy-efficient buildings. Sensors in walls will regulate heat, light and ventilation

Hybrid diesel vehicle
Cars powered by diesel and electricity - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

First Day Sunday

April 16th was Orientation day. Yes, no break and no time for rest.
The dean's speech was good. Then the Deputy Dean Ajit Rangnekar addressed the student body. The only thing i can remember from his speech was that all SAS people should try and find partners during the first term else, there will be no time. This was an interesting insight.

Apart from this was the stress on Honour Code. HC is something like the DC stuff in BITS. Very serious. in BITS, if you are caught doing anything like copying during tests or assignments, then you will be called for a Disciplinary Committee Hearing. The committee will then make a decision based on the seriousness of the issue. In most cases, you will lose a semester. and in BITS, since most of the courses are not available to take up during the next semester, you have to wait to finish the courses. the problem being that you cant even go to the next year without completing the required courses for that year. so in all, one year is GONE.

The HC was something similar and scary. in this case, you may not graduate, not appear for placements, lose a grade or two, possibly get an F grade too.

FootBall World Cup rules for girls

If you decide to stand naked in front of the TV, make sure you put clothes on right after because if you catch a cold, I won't have time to take you to the doctor or look after you during the World Cup month.

During the games I will be blind, deaf and mute - unless I require a
refill of my drink or something to eat.
You are out of your mind if you expect me to listen to you, open the door, answer the telephone, or pick up the baby that just fell from the second floor....it won't happen.

Please, please, please if you see me upset because one of my teams is losing, DO NOT say "get over it, its only a game" or "don't worry, they'll win next time".
If you say these things, you will only make me angrier and I will love you less. Remember, you will never ever know more about football than me and your so called "words of encouragement" will only lead to a break-up or divorce.

And finally, please save your expressions such as "Thank God the World Cup is only every 4 years".
I am immune to these words, because after this comes the Champions League, Italian League, Spanish League, Premier League, etc etc.

The Apprentice

THE APPRENTICE - perhaps the best show i have seen in BBC during my 2 yrs in London.
Perfect for a case study!!! Starting from day one, its a big fight. Everyone wants to a great leader and gives his/her best to get that £100000 job.

Fourteen hopefuls, two eagle-eyed advisors and one self-made millionaire. Yes it’s the show that pits Britain’s hungriest business brains against each other to see which one is worthy of a six-figure salary and the chance to become Sir Alan Sugar’s apprentice.

Over twelve weeks the candidates will take part in the toughest recruitment-drive on television. Sharing a luxury townhouse on London’s "millionaire’s row", they will be split into two teams and given a weekly task with which to expose their entrepreneurial nous.

For those on the winning team a taste of the executive lifestyle awaits in the form of a luxury treat. Those on the losing team will discover that, unlike his name, Sir Alan Sugar is not so sweet.

The losing team’s elected Project Manager must choose two members of the team whom he or she thinks performed worst.

The three of them have to defend their respective corners whilst Sir Alan, assisted by his trusted advisors Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer, decides which of them will hear those dreaded words: "You’re fired".

Over the nail-biting journey the candidates will endure and enjoy (at times), a fight for survival. Only one of them can win so be prepared for plenty of sour-grapes along the way...

Registration Continues

During the registration process, i met rajesh mani. i had heard about him from ppl and i had seen his photo on the website. it was along with the george bush visit photos. rajesh was the president of the student body. they say, when he decided to come to isb, he sold his business. he was an entrepreneur with over 9 yrs of experience in the BPO industry. graduating from madras's prestigious Pachaiyappa's College, he took up business for a while, partied and had a great time before coming to school again.

so back to registration. i met mayank mittal who was there with me in iflex before he moved to CSC Hyderabad and then landed up in ISB. i also bumped into a number of madras isb'ians and then people from BITS. it was a great evening. towards the end, i had to give my laptop to be reformatted according to isb policies and standards.
after all this, i came back and then went for dinner to the Goyal Dining Hall. I cant remember what food was served, but the food was awesome.

Points to Note - registration started with finance and bank loan approvals, then admissions, then CAS, pre-term and core term registration, then IT department, laptop submission, finally ID Card and t-shirt collection.

Registration

the day of registration was pretty chilled out. i decided to get to campus by evening.

so we left my cousins place around afternoon and reached the gates of ISB by 4pm. the guy at the gate gave us directions to the student village. i was allocated student village 2. in about 5 mins, we reached SV2 and then a person at the reception desk showed me the way to the apartment. mine was J-04. the other three ppl in my apartment had reached in the morning.

one guy was a doctor from shimla, one was a consultant with deloitte in bombay and the third guy was an entreprenuer. so, it was a good mix. my registration was scheduled at 5pm. so i got a quick round of intros and started unpacking. my cousin decided to leave.

by the time it was five, i stepped out, only to find manu and pavithra going towards the institute. from the look on their faces, i guessed that they had a long day. after hearing to them, i found that a good number of people were in the same village. in fact, prabhu devarajan, the guy from IIT madras, was living opposite my quad.

after a quick chat abut the whole registration process, i packed the stuff i needed to take with me and walked towards the registration desk.

registration was structured in a circular fashion. but then it was confusing becos it was your first day in the institute. so, most of the time went by searching for rooms. especially when it came to bank loans, it was a big mess. by the time this got sorted, it was almost an hour. i finished my finance bit and then moved on to admissions. my certificates were verified and then i had to register for Pre-Terms.

Pre-Terms is where they teach you the basics of Statistics, Accounting and Quants. its a week long program. i was supposed to take stats and accounts, but then i decided to take up only accounts and this was purely based on the advice from a 2006 passout.

Barista Meet

this meet was rather big. the bigger the better. it happened on a sunday evening at barista on gn chetty road. i had so much trouble finding this place. there was no sign board anywhere. even the guys who run other chain restaurants on the same road had no clue whatsoever of this place.

finally i found this place and went in. this time i was sporting a new look - the tonsure. so it took a lot of people by surprise.

this meet was with the alumni. a lot of ppl who cudnt make it to the besant nagar meet were also there.

the alums were a good number. definitely more than 10 i guess and a lot of people frm CTS. so i managed to get good gyaan on CTS jobs and made soem good contacts.
a lot of new faces for class of 2007 were also there. again, remembering names became a big problem.

apart from the gyaan on CTS, we got to meet ppl from irevna, then an entrepreneur, another guy who was with an AD firm and couple of other ppl. so there was some diversity.

megh and manu had planned this event quite well. also in the process megh managed to give everyone a copy of his Soulfull CD.

Planet Yum Meet

This meeting happened such a long time back that I dont remember the date. It was a saturday and I dinno that the meeting was scheduled. I stepped into office because I couldnt find a restroom in nungambakkam. now, this is effect of being in london. i keep looking for public toilets and obviously i dont find it in madras. how i wish i could go back to the kingdom.

so, i happened to check my email and there is on from Manu who happens to be a friend of Aavi at Raleigh. the mail mentioned about an isb meet that day in planet yum.

now, planet yum was in besant nagar and i had been to that place for like 3 times in 7 years!!! so it was a difficult decision. but then i decided to make it because i wanted to meet the gang.

we met up and i guess we were about 10 ppl. i dinn get lost trying search for people. the intelligent gang was right at the spot. looking at the planet yum environment, we decided to find a place in barista.

then a round of intros started and instantly i forgot all the names, except for manu.
as soon as the orders came by, some more ppl joined and then we had intros again. by that time i figured a few names and the faces.

the meet was a quick one, but it was interesting. there was megh who talked to us about his music production. i was thrilled to hear that.

manu took a lot of photos. so i guess you should check his blog for more details.

Before Registration

I packed my bags in less than one day and then took the train on wednesday the 12th of april to hyderabad. it was a good journey. i got to meet another narayanan on the train. he was working as a delivery manager with hcl.

hyd was the usual. very hot and taxi drivers waiting to cheat you. i actually got scared when the porter started walking in a different direction as opposed to what i was telling him. finally he walked to the right place.

the police controlled taxis/autos are very good here. they keep a track of where people and autos are going. seems to be a decent practice and it definitely avoids any problem. madras sucks in this system.

so i reached my cousins place without further delay.

the next two days were spent in shopping for some general stuff and watching TV on new years day.

the next day was registration day and i was all set.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Product of the Year 2005


This product was in the news when I was in London last year.

Audi-Oh - Sound In - Pleasure Out! The Sound-Responsive Pleasure System


Audi-Oh™ is a patented* revolutionary advance in personal stimulation devices. Unlike conventional vibrators, Audi-Oh uses sound to create a uniquely stimulating, infinitely variable vibration instead of a repetitive pattern, or continuous vibration. Audi-Oh allows the user to choose the speed, rhythm and intensity that is perfect for them. Audi-Oh can be used with sound, without sound or with a mix of sound generated vibrations and steady vibration for even more sensations.



Simply put, Audi-Oh translates sound into vibration. Audi-Oh captures sound and turns it into stimulating vibrations in Ambient Mode, using sounds in the environment such as someone's voice or the music in your favorite dance club, or in Direct Mode using direct audio input from devices such as your iPod™, other portable CD or MP3 players, home stereo system, musical instruments and PCs. The diagram above illustrates Audi-Oh in Ambient Mode.