Move on

 

I’ve moved on, from blogger. My blogs are now hosted at www.kamleshchandra.com & will be the only place where I’ll be putting my thoughts together.

I will no longer be posting blogs here & eventually like all things in life, this place will come to an end.

Thanks Blogger, for the platform!

While growing up as a teenager, am glad now that, I watched Doogie Howser, M.D., from where I learnt the need and joy of “diary writing” & The Wonder Years, which, helped me sync the events, narration and flow of thoughts in my mind!

Thinking, in Series and Parallel

If thinking was to be described the way electrical circuits are, then we would have two basic type of thinking; series and parallel.

Series thinking, is something which we all do. Most of us are coded from birth this way, we learn to go for logic, for logical steps, from one point to next in the line, and thus we always proceed in that fashion, anything that falls out of that order is dismissed as illogical and focus is kept only on the logical queue, which makes most sense.

And the other is parallel thinking, few of us are left as we are born maybe. As one isn't born skilled or dumb, likewise, one isn't born to think a certain way. A newborn mind is a blank mind & that’s the last stage, one will witness a blank/white mind, ever.

Now, since we humans evolved, we learnt, applied and corrected the leaning to apply it again, and so happened the circle of life. We moved, sequentially, logically, weeding out things not contributing to what we wanted as outcome, and kept going. It has worked neatly, no doubt. Although, how can one question, until one doesn't have anything to compare to? & to compare this thing we are in, are you kidding!!… To compare such a humongous theory of learning, of logical precedence… what will you compare it with?! Our math, our physics, our chemistry, our biology… our entire learning is based on the logical series thinking!! What tool can one get to put against this and say, hey this doesn't sizes up!!

I believe, there’s this, “parallel thinking” too, it must be. Maybe from my finite vision and understanding, it’s something like this: When understanding geography one can relate and understand physics as well, then it’s parallel thinking. Makes any sense? ……..exactly!, from series viewpoint one will never make any sense of something which first breaks the very first principle of their existence – logic.

“Dismissed, it doesn't makes any sense, he has gone mad.”

Well, on a lighter note, mad is good, when everyone around seems to be intelligent then the other and are hell-bent to prove. we need a bunch of mad people around, to balance it out. :)

Coming back to topic, our intelligence, our logic, our reasoning, seems to be in series. Our roots are balanced upon logic – one directional perhaps. Our numbers, are based on that same logic and so is our everything else. So, if I am an enemy, then I just got one thing to take care of – “logic”! Just blow it up and you are already defeated without a war!!

And since this is the thing at “the scratch”, the basic principle of how we think and work, we need to put the solution at “the scratch” as well. To address this, and to develop parallel thinking, fresh minds, needs to be addressed with a complete different strategy. Nothing should be taught the way we do it, but in a new invented way. I already feel the goose bumps of the heart, mind and intelligence at that level, of someone my age.

Update: I read a news article of a Russian mathematician, who solved a 100 year old "Poincaré conjecture" math problem. After reading articles on him including on Wikipedia, I cant stop thinking the way he thought and comprehended things.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/23/grigory-perelman-rejects-1m-dollars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

http://techland.time.com/2011/05/03/math-genius-solves-100-year-old-problem-then-refuses-million-dollar-prize/

http://windowstorussia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Grigori_Perelman_Interview.jpg

@ Amazon: Parallel Thinking, by Edward de Bono

ASSOCHAM Conference on Cyber & Network Security, New Delhi

In the past few days, I attended a one day, International conference on Cyber & Network Security by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India). The conference had speakers from all around, including 2 professors from Ohio State university, professionals from around Israel, the folks from the ministry, various CBI officials, European Union cyber crime division heads and US embassy economic affairs secretaries.

Among the attendees/delegates, most who attended, except the likes of I, were from some kind of government shop, which could afford to fly them in and make them well rested at a guest house. And, then while speaking with one such individual, I got updated on how the Indian government offices and subsidiaries were well equipped with the latest know-hows and infrastructure of Cyber Security.

Until this day, from my perspective, I had only seen the Indian government's image as of this big elephant surrounded by blind men, and everyone stating out what they "feel".

Boy, I was in for a surprise! It appeared to me that the government had figured out their Boa constrictor* & were already playing with it! The snake was still crawling under the carpets of red-tapsim, bureaucracy, corruption, inefficiency and what not. One of the senior official from Indian Oil subsidiary shared with me, how Indian Oil and his company, the Chennai Oil Company, were strongly focusing on Cyberspace Security. They had infrastructure in place, policies were framed and implemented and they reviewed their stuff periodically, and reported everything back to New Delhi HQs.

The EU representatives mainly showed much concern over information privacy and vowed assistance to the Indian government in this regard. I am not sure what they will have to say about Cloud computing and all the DRP's EU firms might have overseas! There were a lot of questions to be asked and issues to be discussed but someone took more then his quota of time on a not very enriching topic, and everyone else had to pay for him! Following speakers got only 5-7 minutes to speak afterwords, no questions or discussions followed. It was more like a, sit-tight while the wind gush passes, kinda sessions afterwords.

One panelist was quick to observe this along with the deficiency of aligned topics and lapses in matter and presenters. I laughed at the way he placed his sarcasm on a platter. When he was addressed to share his thoughts on "Security on Social Networks and Cloud Computing", I still remember almost verbatim what he said. This guy is the Executive Director of KPMG, Akhilesh Tuteja. He preferred to talk while sitting behind his name board, as I remember it, this is what he said: "It gives me mixed feelings of good and bad sitting here today. Good feeling is that, my flight will depart at 7 'o clock. Usually I take the 5:30 flight and most of the time, the airline, delays the 5:30 flight and then combines it with the 7 'o clock flight. So, all these times I had to wait and then fly with someone, who never waited. Today its a good feeling that I won't have to wait. I am happy that someone else waited today and not me. Bad feeling is; this is the second time in my life I am unable to say anything or participate. The first time was during my marriage, when I was on the stage and everyone else was enjoying themselves." & that's all he said for his remarks. Then to make it more humorous, he stated "7 ways facebook could make your life tought". lol... do I have to mentione them here?! ;) He did although mentioned about "beacon score" app in facebook. That's something I learnt too!

I was rounding up folks, who according to me were impressive & knew their stuff at the back of their hands. So, here they are:

• The Altal Security, Board Chairman, Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski, came out as an aware, super-charged and wise guy. His presentation was impressive, and vocally he was bursting out..lol.
• Peter Swire, Professor at Ohio Sate University, was good. His presentation content was good, updated and he knew what he was saying.
• Akash Mainra, Research in Motion, I remember, gave a good talk and was on-track.
• S.N.Ravichandran, Cyber Society of India. This guy had some facts and figures at the back of his hand and was going smooth, I wanted to see more on what he had to say & where he wanted to go with the topic in conversation, but he bailed out after 5 minutes into the topic, sighting limited time availability.

& that's it, yes, I've checked my list twice! Out of 33 odd speakers, I could only find 4 worth listening to. I am sure I could have accommodated 2 more, but I couldn't recollect what exactly they spoke about.

So, looking at what I "learnt" and took home with me, hmm.. lets do that math now. I learnt:

1. Cyber Security initiatives are in place for large-scale & stable government and semi-government bodies and are working. Example, Chennai Petroleum Corporation.
2. Most fully-government bodies had a lot of work to do about managing and safeguarding personal information & security. Example: like the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), something similar like the SIN (Social Insurance Number) of the west, had some plans in place, but weren't convincing enough. If you are going to put entire country's personal information online, then you gotta be smart and have partnership with a private player too, to keep your bases covered. The UIDAI representative apparently had this down her list. She was much happy about the UIDAI initiative itself, or so, it appeared from her talk.
   
3. Less panel discussion members are always more! On average there were 6 in each session, whilst not more then 3 wise men, would have been better and enriching.
4. Presentations don't have to be arbitrary in scope! In fact they never are.
5. Giving out handouts on topics & about what you want people to remember from the conference, is important. Just the Agenda won't do! This was missing and four days after the conference I hardly could recollect what these folks said in their presentations. Everybody said everything & remaining just enjoyed the days off and free travel.
6. Merging two sessions together is like a mandatory tactical exercise! Not everyone does a Triathlon, so, breaks between sessions are must!
7. One important of all things I learnt; is to have a mechanism of feedback. If you dont know how your hairstyle looks like, you could well be looking Ace Ventura or Captain Jack Sparrow, but you would never find out! How good is that?!
   

That's all for now. I did sent an email to Assocham two days ago, but never heard back. Guess that email address only accepts payments! ;)

* - Boa Constrictor - from the famous french novel "The Little Prince". Read online here.
Boa Constrictor mentioned in (chapter 1, paragraph 2)

Howdy World!

Feels like a freshmen once again while in the C++ class, and writing my first program all over again! lol…. it’s so much fun and exciting to try new things which can make existing tasks run so amazingly with scope for possibilities… and today it’s the Windows Live Essentials that made me felt that ways.

Today, I am writing this blog post using Windows Live Writer! Amazing tool… makes it so much easy and flexible.. can’t stop imagining writing blogs at my own pace and then posting it when it’s done…! …ya I know, sounds like the expected, it does have a full-fledged toolbars and dictionary to help me stay on-course and keeps the typos off my blogs.,… hmm… I certify it…COOL!

So, yes that’s one of the tools in Windows Live Essentials, others include but are not limited to; Windows live mesh, live messenger, live SkyDrive, photo gallery, movie maker, outlook connector pack,… to name a few… and it makes me say Wow.. literally!

Never did I had so many meaningful and useful tools at my disposal… all at at once… which really were needed and worked like a charging bull! Now that’s a strong statement! & needless to say these all have been re-engineered/re-designed and once you set your hands on them... you will understand what I really mean... :)

Overall I am happy with how things have come together technology-wise,… a few days ago, via a twitter or a Facebook connection, I saw the video advertisement about Windows Phone 7.. here it is, .. you can watch it below…

And that’s the same idea behind the Windows Live Essentials, .. to enable us to to do our stuff much efficiently and easily. Simple idea but harder to get there, when you got trillion apps, touch screens, shake and compass and all the features that were supposed to help us… got us distracted in ways that we liked… !

So, here I am.. working on these things and hoping to speak to a bunch more at TechDays 2010 in Toronto at the Collaboration Lounge with all these Technologies and enjoying some fun time at the XBox Kinect with the Microsoft Canada team.. would be fun… I hope… if I don’t get glued to the Kinect itself… lol… cheers!

Microsoft TechDays 2010

Intelligence

I thought, I was fairly intelligent based on handful of occasions, when my ideas/thoughts of something completely new, came up few months later, as new products in the industry.
I thought, boy, I have it in me.. I can think from ground up! Such parallelism.. hmm..

A week ago, I was jumping on tweets from one to other, all coming from the people I follow. Then I happened to jump to a tweet by Uday Chopra. Yes, that's right, the Bollywood actor, Uday Chopra (@udaychopra). And, I was surprisingly taken aback by how intelligent others are, too. Uday, by the way, was tweeting about "Bell's theorem" and "Super-determinism".

Now, I have Uday Chopra to tell me to sit back in my thinking chair. For those, who would like to read on what Bell's theorem is & possibly thinking, what the hell "Super-determinism" is, then guess what... you gotta Google it yourslelf! ;)

Anyways, I say that I am on my thinking chair again, because, I feel, like all other things, intelligence is relative too, & that it grows to folks, who would be hard to identify and relate to, by other intelligent folks, until they both meet.

Makes any sense? ...

Let me see, if I can explain my mind out here. I have contemplated for a long time, 2 possibilities:


Possibility case 1:

Case 1 of an intelligent NASA astronaut, academic topper. Guru of electronics, mechanics, mathematics and other-tics. Lets say, this guy has gained all the knowledge available & now, his hunger has increased many-fold to seek the knowledge of universe and multidimensional intelligence unknown to us & other stuff which I cant even think of. (Yes, I accepted!)

So, this guy, after all his years into seeking and doing everything towards this goal, finally finds the "god", the one master-key-answer. Now what?

With all that knowledge, mental-elevation & the master-key-answer, all beyond our imagination, one thing I can think of first is, this guy's knowledge hunger now is permanently fixed! There's no more seeking or "wondering" for him anymore.

Now with all that knowledge, it doesn't makes any sense in thinking if he tries to form his small gang and goes for taking control over the world! or do something on the same lines!! naaa......

What I can think of is; 1) he will filter out intelligence and will educate only the type which humankind will benefit from, collectively. 2) lead a complete opposite of the life, he has lived till now.


Possibility case 2:

And that complete opposite life, I always thought was of a country man, (the case 2, guy). This country man who, lives with his family, has his own farm, livestock, pets and lived each day fully as it comes..... finding joy, happiness and love in all the simple things in his lifestyle. He doesn't care or is aware of, what ISLV is, or what Large Hadron Collider does! All he cares of is his family and happiness thereof.

----

The reason I think the astronaut would lead a completely different lifestyle to what he has lived till now, is because; all the knowledge, intelligence, the "ultimate truth".. and beyond.., is all Zero to him now, zero as in - there is no more distance of understanding of it to/from him, it is in him, the wisdom, the awareness.
& so, I think, the farmer, the remote country-man, could be the only someone, who the astronaut would have interest in, as he could have been the only guy, who would be so far from this but living the exact life, as someone exhausted after a long-long run wud live...

So, looks like, the point I am making here is; Decisions made with having no knowledge & decisions made after having all the knowledge possible, are hardly differentiable! ... think over it..

& all others like me, are somewhere else, in the equation of wisdom and life...

As Einstein once said: "There are only two ways to live your life;
One is as though nothing is miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Leave comments. Would be great to hear all your crap too. ;)

Twitter-ation.. & things like that...

Tweetak tweetak twititya..
Wow, twitter has in a way revolutionized communication. Recently, I found people from all walks of life having an audience to share directly without any middle-men, media, or editors.... to talk-to, inspire or just simply connecting with thoughts. I find this communication very genuine as it gives a one-to-one touch. The way all this has penetrated into everyone's daily live is amazing!

And this, has always got me excited & interested; the useful applications of technology. I had a strong inclination towards achieving what a certain tool could best possibly deliver, rather then how amazing a tool was. Although, not undermining the tool, I always found the value of the tool in what it could help deliver & leverage other tasks/applications.

Useful application of technology:
Back in the college days, we were learning C++. In one of those fresher classes we were introduced to writing code on sorting, palindromes etc, & were assigned to develop variants of these programs ourselves at home. I had read and heard amazing powers of C++ and really wanted to dive deeper then what was assigned. So, instead of doing the assignment, my first real C++ program was a system password access utility integrated at the BIOS level, I even made it a little colorful too, used C++ graphic, fonts and system beeps for wrong password entered; flashing screens on wrong passwords. All colors and behaviors thrown-in to make it look like a real BIOS utility. That was some real hard application with lots of fun! I would go back to the code every few days to re-do things and make it work a bit better. I enjoyed doing all that.

Also, that reminds me of one another episode related to coding and design. Back in the college days, me and my partner, Navnit, had a project to do. Navnit's focus was mostly on the code, whilst my focus was mostly on the GUI. I was more worried about how the data readability and how it would make sense to the user. The "beauty components", as Navnit would refer it, humorously. Now, it turns out, that's what we have been missing all this while. The data making sense & user experience, that is. Something that was just a cliche then, now is a job profile and organization across all horizontals and verticals are aware and implementing positions to get that "beauty component" working.

At the end:
Utilities like twitter, are not just codes, they are purposes, supported by good codes and an interfaces that combines and actually make the code generate value & achieve it's purpose.

Some twitter people I enjoy reading from include but are not limited to;
@ShashiTharoor @BeingSalmanKhan @DeepakChopra @simonsinek @RicksterCDN

the case of a blank cd

Lessons from small incidents are sometimes priceless.
Key: Have an open mind, and ask questions.

I was at work, when I overheard one of the team leads on a bridge call, on speakerphone. The guy on the other side required a blank cd to move/store some data. The team lead got up and started looking around for the blank cd and got it in next few minutes from a different manager.

I was watching this, and at the end asked anyway, to the team lead, if he did found a blank cd, to which he said "yes, John had a few". I cheered him, and he smiled and went back to his desk.


Background:

During my college internship preparation, I got a lifetime of wish coming true, in the make of a telephonic internship interview from the dream factory itself, Microsoft at Redmond. I prepared for it all day and night, and every time I lifted my head from books and the laptop, I magnetically flew into the dream of how it all will be working with Microsoft finally, and how I would just do anything to be there... (not that I dont dream the same..), but back then I learnt one very important quality.

The internship interview was for Program manager. The quality I learnt was of, "asking questions".
It didn't matter as greatly, that you knew the subject deeply, as compared to, if you are an actively thinking individual who processes information actively and ask questions about things, to confirm or to understand/learn more, before investing your time and resources.

In the telephonic interview, I was asked, how would I redesign/rebuild a house which had no walls but just the fully furnished floor, and a limited budget to finish.

Of course, most would agree that the first thing that comes to the mind naturally is, how much budget you have and how much time you got to do this. And the interviewer, wont give out hints to you, he/she will just listen and mark you on that.

So, as I said, asking questions, has to come from actively processing things and removing the "no pop-up questions" restriction from your mind. Let it ask and counter-ask.

So, In case of the CD, it's important to ask about the whats & whys.
What would you like to achieve?
What data are you trying to move/copy? (Is it alright to copy "that" data to a removable disk?)
Do we have an alternative to achieve that objective?
Can only copying be a solution?
Can it be copied to other network drives?, how about a USB stick ?
What better can we do, for situations like these, next time onwards?

And in case of the unfinished house:
Why is this house unfinished?
Who owned it and why only the floor is intact but the walls are all gone?
Is it a demolition or a result of a natural disaster or something else?
Why do the owner now wants only the walls built, when there's so much scope for a new house design? Is it legal & safe to rebuild?
What if an event like this happens again? (the one that destroyed this house)
Would it make any financial sense to re-do it as compared to buy a new one or build a fresh one?


Lessons:

• The answers fuel the questions towards greater clarity and understanding of what you are dealing with. So, always start with asking questions to yourself and always try answering and figuring out, by asking or by studying about it.

• State your requirements in more comprehensive broad terms, to avoid bounding people to the words and terms. For example, I read this somewhere: If a fire safety manual would say "grab a blanket, and cover the victim". It closes the reader's mind for the moment, and forces the reader to run and look for a "blanket", when anything that could have covered the victim and terminated the air supply as a fire fuel, would have done the job!, including your own coat, or a good roll on the floor. What we want to achieve is to block the air supply fueling the fire. Likewise, asking for a help to achieve an objective is more open ended, and leaves the reader to evaluate options, think with an open mind, as compared specifically asking for CD. So, what can be done is, state your objective clearly then maybe followed by what you think is the tool required to achieve it. If your listener/reader is an active, open-minded thinking individual, he/she will get the information.

anyways...

Recently on twitter I read tweets about a book from a twitter contact. The name of the book is "Start with why", by Simon Sinek. It has intrigued me and while driving to and from work, and while thinking on all mundane stuff, I've started thinking with a why, and often times, try to question why, "why", while i am thinking on the stuff too?

It has been a good thought journey in these 2 days since i have read about the book's title & the intro note about the book by Simon Sinek himself, reading it will lay the base map in your mind too, of the stuff I am talking here. The intro note can be read here.

Thinking of all the stuff, I came across a tweet by @davidcrow, about a video clip of a Stanford university class lecture on creative out-of-the-box thinking. Sincethe clip was short, I asked David for a link of the full clip. David was prompt. I watched the link in many parts from office, re-winding and watching it over again overlapping a small portion every time. The clip was very inspiring and gave me the energy and thought threshold which all of us need, but never appears at the top of our list. Anyways after watching the clip, I thanked David for the wonderful resource, and wrapped up work to leave for home.

That night, at a family get-together, instant 3-word short blast of talk from the clip kept playing in my head. I was thinking how we all, just live by the tested and stable, and which is why dont appreciate or understand risks in entirety. The night ended, Bacardi did its job, shut-off my engine & I went to bed.

Woke up at 6 o' clock, the phone alarm is mute and testing my body-clock again today. Its a little proud feeling, my first win of the day, "there, i beat the clock" I tell myself, again today. Its just been a few days with this new body-clock thing working with me, and its a good feeling. Anyways...

This morning, at work, when things are usually slow, I checked my email which led me to my facebook page, in there, at the right side alerts scrolled, about all the people in my network, whom I haven't communicated for a while. Amongst them was my younger brother, Rahul too. Rahul, had his birthday on Oct 25th. While we spoke on phone and I wished him on his birthday, I never really took the time out, to reach him online. So, in facebook, I saw the wall posting by his friends and colleagues. I realized being brothers, how different we were & recently the increased distanced between us. It was nostalgic. Basically the point here is; little perhaps, but continuous communications is still better then, once a month, 1 hour telephonic chat!

Moving on from that thought, I realized in my own opinion on why people write autobiographies, and what it really says out loud. I felt that they write it to primarily tell people whom they lived, loved and liked, of their importance in their lives. To "thank you" in writing to all and for it to stay there for years to come. Maybe, also to kill the thoughts, of "I didn't lived it properly, I wish I would have done/not-done that..." and why not?! It's their last chance to confess to themselves and to re-emphasize things they did and why.

Also part reason of my blog is this too...

Anyways, so it has been a mix of thinking on the "why's" of the life and things while balancing it with life and love itself. So, Rahul, bhai, I love you, always had and always will.

I might have won against the messenger (my clock) but not the time itself. So, save yourself from writing an autobiography!to all other then Rahul, check the book out, get inspired and love.


Food for though: The one who said: "Pen is mightier then the sword", might have said that after testing out everything with the sword, not pen. ;)

Tech Days Toronto - mettles tested & knowledge ionized

Tech Days Toronto wrapped up, all well, house full with 1200+ folks from all walks of life!, on Sep 30th @ the Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCC). I took a good long break and now am back to blog about it.

This article is going to be a long read. The train will run off-course thru the fields and sometimes on track too. There, I warned you!

It has been a very learning and blessed experience for me. I still recall the day 1, on Sept 29th, when I started out to the venue from the Go station in Cooksville, as the train ride would give me ample time to think on stuff while avoiding downtown Toronto traffic and parking worries. Among other things, I was also trying to think how it would all go, trying to look at it from a future point of view, as if what was going to happen was past. It was day 1 of 2, in my life when the gravity of things increased as if someone had placed a paperweight on my fabric-of-life. Everything gravitated in right there.

Entering the MTCC and all the way to the Speakers' Room was a breeze, glad I had the Speaker badge hanging off my neck :). There in the room I met Rodney Buike, who was the Track lead for the Windows Client track. Rodney & I were off to the presentation room upstairs to install s/w, demos and load VMs to the latest high-end Dell laptop which was nicknamed "Dellosaurs" by the team. While on our way up, saw Rick Claus, walking with other folks putting things together.


This reminds of the time I first met Rick. My first face-to-face with Rick was at the Windows 7 event at the MSHQ Mississauga early this year, where Rick was on the stage speaking to all of us (attendees). Rick's looks reminded me of my school friend Mukesh Bisht. Same intelligent looks, same style and sharpness of mind, I was amazed. I felt very comfortable instantly and went ahead to speak with him, after he finished speaking on stage. While Rick, treating me as every other attendee who would have some questions, asked me to ask questions I might had. I on the other hand, just wanted to say "hi" for the moment, tell how great the event was & how much he resembled my school friend. Well, that certainly didn't happened, so I ended up asking about his hat, and how similar it was to the hunter Van Pelt in the movie Jumanji. So, Rick laughed and then told me that the hat was actually a Tilley hat, known for it's lifetime warranty and endurance.

I instantly became a fan of this sharp, smart, fluent-public-speaker-geek, who came out so warmly even to people like me.

Alright back to TechDays now; So, after all was set-up with the Dellosaurs, I ran downstairs to the welcome and keynote hall to grab some breakfast first & then to listen to the keynote/welcome address. Was thrilled and excited to see the crowd of Tech geeks & how they got-together with their peers on the round dining tables spread across the hall & started out chit-chatting while grabbing something to eat after the welcome keynote. Met Rick there again, while he was manning the stage. Man, this guy was everywhere!

Back in Speakers' Room, everyone was sitting there around a huge rectangular table with their laptops heating it up, working their way thru the slides and demos. I joined them and thus my day started out.

Few minuted later, Day 1 Session 1 was about to begin, & being a bollywood fan, I didn't wanted to miss out on it (1st day 1st show)! Next, I was standing in the Windows Client hall, jam-packed, people standing as the seats were all occupied. The CMS guy I met a day earlier, Christopher Diachok, was standing on stage with his hands folded at back, giving a sharp MIB look. I waved at him and let him steal the show. Chris was sharp, went smooth and in-control & took 2 sessions back to back. The guy had a sore throat, when he met me back at the Speakers' room. Nice down to earth guy, never knew he had so many Microsoft designations behind his name.

After Diachok's first session, I was on my way back to the Speakers' room to work on my presentation, on my way, I could see attendees around the "ask the expert" zones, queing up their "asks" :)

My session was on Day 2, and it went well. So, was I told by the session attendees! Anyways, all this long story short, guess what I want to say is, Microsoft TechDays is a knowledge-jam-packed event, & you will be surprised to know, after you attend events like this are:
1. there's at least handful of horses running faster and quicker then youself!
2. interacting with other attendees gives you more insights into existing issues and more resources to learn
3. the geeks at Microsoft have a lighter side as well, you will be glad to share your stories with them, and they will complete the rest :)
4. the msdn goodies are worth it!
5. maybe if someones' eye catches you, you could be very well presenting a session next time!

You might want to have a look at the TechDays picture I clicked, posted on flikr here.



A solid piece of article stays at TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/canitpro/archive/2009/10/09/microsoft-techdays-toronto-2009-wraps-up.aspx

TechDays Canada 2009

Microsoft Tech Days Canada 2009 is scheduled beginning September 09. Early bird registration is still available, which means you pay $299 instead of $599.

Its an awesome event, from all the exposure I've got of it till now. It's a 2 day event full of 40 amazing sessions, divided in 5 tracks, covering 7 cities throughout Canada. It gives an excellent opportunity to soak stuff first-hand, and not-to-mention the marvelous opportunity to network with Microsoft Pro community members, & like-minded IT professional just like you.

What you take home with you is;

• a TechNet Plus subscription, giving you - Full-version software for evaluation - without time limits – including Microsoft operating systems, servers, and Office System software along with a free subscription to TechNet Magazine among other goodies
  
• first-hand exposure to all the new and enhanced stuff with exposure to the community
  
• business cards of the people you networked with!
• advantage of knowing tools and technology and pursuing it before it hits the market this fall.
  

It's confirmed & am excited and to be a part of this awesome event as a speaker on one of the Windows client session topic. More will flow to you, keep checking techdays.ca for information.

Whenever something like this is going to happen, I tend to think it from the points in time where it is actually happening & after it has happened! (Call it parallel universe, as per Joey deVilla's line-of-thought) I drive my thoughts from those future points in time to see how I need to be placing myself now, whats my line of action which will lead me to the finish point, what attitude/skills it asks for, enabling me to make it to the point in time, I want me in.

This theory actually comes from a yoga technique, as I was told about, which tells to look back at things from the point in time you want it to reach or attain, and then from there, walk backwards to your current position in time. This will help you make decisions more accurately and will give you a clearer picture of the path that needs to be followed.

Well, for now, I ask you to do the same with your existing point-in-time status, see for yourself how TechDays can turn things around for you! Give it a thought... ! :)


Namaste!


Kamlesh Chandra

The case of Cloud computing

First when I read about the cloud computing buzz, i thought of it something related to the network intricacies. Then I read about it further, online and at various technical blogs, and realized it isn't the case.

People wrote about it from various viewpoints... risk transference, data integrity controls, handing over your confidential data to the big brother and so and so forth...

To get a grip of cloud computing you may want to visit Kai Axford's blog Kai is is a Senior Security Strategist in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group. His is the blog I follow regularly along with Mark Russionovich's.

From a hypothetical point of view, my view towards the cloud is that, it could eventually lead to layers of the internet. I had read about this when web 2.0 was coined. There were articles which first talked about it. Vint Cerf, the father of the internet himself opposed the idea and had said that the net was there to be free and available.

Building upon what I read then, I think in long run something along these lines will be implemented. We have cloud computing coming up, we also have the "red dog" - the cloud utility platform from Microsoft coming out. And we have SaaS (Software as a Service) & PaaS (Platform as a Service) too. Am just wondering what the ecosystem will be of all these technologies coming and fitting into a system!

On a lighter note, this parallel thing reminds me of Deepak Chopra's statement in one of his lectures about how parallely things happen in the universe, all of which contribute in their own way and lead one to another.

Right now, I feel, this as an attempt to unify access to data; bring coherence to all the parts (data, controls, service and providers); and also feel that this has been going around for some time now!

Perhaps we are right now exactly in the beginning of the next big techical leap!
here's the visualization; I guess everyone has seen the movie "Terminator 2", remember the scene when the T1000 walks in liquid Nitrogen, freezes up, and shatters to small pieces when Arnold fires at him saying "Asta-lavista-baby!" ... and then when temperature rises, all the parts starts melting down and joining to one-another, until the whole thing comes together in liquid on the floor and forms the T1000 back!..... i feel maybe this is the parts uniting stage, technologically!

Disclaimer: i might be wrong too.... ;)

Singularity University !

Wow! now it has stopped... the churning of my mind! I came here to write about this University, but thoughts kept brimming, and to save them from over-flow, i placed them here. If they make u laugh, awesome. If they make u think, that you think likewise too... then ping me back !

Singularity University is (directly from their website http://singularityu.org/about/):
"Singularity University, based on the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley, is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies (bio, nano, info, AI, etc.), and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges."

Since this is a new start-up, I expect this to evolve to a place where you can go, with your thoughts and ideas, and evolve them into grand solutions for grand challenges. And, expect it to not only invite leaders, but to anyone who has the interest and thinking potential for it!

Just like, you don't find a problem in your code and someone else does, likewise, a fresh new-mind can learn and see things differently and find problems and solutions, compared to a conditioned mind, which is sunk deep into the topic.

Links:
Singularity University: http://singularityu.org/
Singularity on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/singularity.univ

..............

dreamer...

...
Alright, before I go ahead, sometimes I have pondered on why and how, I think so much and dream so much. I mean literally "dream". Well, most have laughed on my nap taking skills. When I am doing nothing, I hibernate, un-intentionally ! And, in my dreams I have seen most amazing things otherwise un-thinkable. I have seen a complete movie, a complete live and running story, of characters i haven't read or was told about! So, I had a thought, on when I will be able to attend a skool where I could go-in and enrich my thoughts, share them, challeneg them and bring out the best in me. A skool where, my physics or maths grade would not make me feel holding-on-tight!
What I am today, is what values more then what I was in my skool. For, those who were best in that time, have conditioned themselves into specifics of things. I on the other hand maybe still have an open-mind, and a mind which is sparking. Maybe its time to pull the cord, or turn the key... and start it run !

I know what most will say... ;p

Following is the link to a video worth watching about, changing education paradigm:

....

Singularity !

On one hand: it appears like the diversity of people in this world is coming to a halt! That's pretty alarming! It questions the survivability of human kind.

We have all the intellectuals, philosophers, students, strategists and what-nots all around. As if we are not reaching closer to the unknown but more farther from it! and therefore the word "singularity". Singualrity is defined as; "A point in space-time where its curvature becomes infinite. Big Bang is an example of a singularity."

My focus is on the word "infinite", for it tells me, again the closer we think, the farther we are from the unknown, and the input reason is, because our evolution has almost come to a halt.

As the modern science puts it; It all started with a single-cell organism, which was a female by deafult, and there were no other sex, yes, no "male" sex. They would after a process and period of time would reproduce. Survival was not a requirement, coz they all survived. Then with changing environment and time, it split into male and female celled organisms. Reasoning provided was, of survivalability! If the cells split to male and female, then they would be able to go "out" and reproduce with other cells, and the off-springs would be more diverse and adapt to the changing environment and also coz this would neutralizes an issue in the DNA structure of one organism with the others and vice-versa.

Now, after so many permutations and combinations, I am starting to feel that we have run out of numbers and therefore diversity!

By streamlining humans to one-kind-of-wisdom, we have in a way killed their unknown abilities or discoveries, which they would have done. Maybe we could taught them on how to learn, instead of making them learn by the book, and only learn 5 subjects in 1 year! I maybe be completely wrong, and maybe I might contradict myself in the coming times, but this reminds me of "Osho", who said in one of his lectures that "one who keeps learning has to contradict himself not once but many times...."





On a lighter note, mayebe we need to mutate and need to make aliens arrive ! who knows... (the long ears might be listening in) :)

I also liked: Osho http://skashliwal.wordpress.com/category/random/

Some funny things Bill Gates is doing...

Just today, I happened to visit "I M A PC" page again, after a few weeks of posting my message on, why I think, I am a PC....

So, the videos looks good. Tells me that, now Billy boy is living his dreams. You know, dreams as in things which you & I would do, when no one know us as someone accomplished. When nobody notices and no headlines gets printed on small little things you would do,... good for him. It always gives a goose bump to see Bill... and in these videos, its just pure crazy fun.... i love it. Watch for yourslef..

>>

Video: Shoe Circus
>>

>>

Video: New Family
>>


watch these @ Microsoft websIte:
http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/gates-and-seinfeld.aspx

In pictures: A year in technology

In pictures: A year in technology....







After months of rumours, Apple boss Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in January. It first went on sale in July and fans queued for days to get their hands on the device.





Microsoft began the hard sell of its latest operating system in January. Vista, was designed to be ultra-secure, a claim disputed by some security researchers.



Nintendo's Wii became the console of choice in 2007 with demand outstripping supply. The console outsold Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3).



Reports of cyber-attacks on government systems increased throughout the year. Estonia claimed it endured an attack by Russia - sparked by the relocation of a war memorial.



In June, researchers at MIT showed off an experimental system to deliver power to electrical devices without the need for wires. They called the system WiTricity.



Facebook grew at a phenomenal rate in 2007, passing more than 50m users worldwide. But the social network also came under attack for its privacy policies.



One of the most anticipated games of the year - Halo 3 - hit shelves in September. The Xbox 360 title made £84m ($170m) in its first 24 hours, according to Microsoft.



Intel launched a range of processors in November becoming the first company to use a new silicon replacement, based on the metal hafnium, into parts of its processors.












In November, Google ended speculation about the imminent release of a Google phone when it launched an open operating system for phones, called Android.



The One Laptop per Child project, which aims to distribute cheap laptops in the developing world, secured its first order from Uruguay and started mass production.



007 was dominated by privacy scares including the loss of two CDs, containing personal details of 25 million individuals, by Her Mjesty's Revenue and Customs.

-----
taken from: BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7129507.stm)

Rendezvous with Bill Gates - Junior

One Morning, I was surprised to see a Bill Gates look-alike standing next to me and smiling!! This was in a Macs store in Barrie, Ontario. I was shocked, surprised and happy.... for few moments, was still sinking in the what I saw and reality.

I took the opportunity and told him, how much he resembled Bill Gates, thinking he would be glad to hear that... but sure enough... he already knew that! He replied back.. "people keep telling me that"... hahaha

Well, then I told him he should shoot a movie starring himself as Bill Gates or maybe think of Hollywood. I am sure someone out there must be willing enough to make a Microsoft themed movie..... or if funny then... maybe a move titled..."Bill Gates - back to school" with dialogues from Arnold's movie "I will be back... "... that will be a blockbuster... Crazy laughs ensued and it made my day! He then permitted me upon request, to take some pictures of him to put it here, for this memorable day.

___________________________________________________________________
Picture of Bill Gates for reference: See yourself

Space, Time & Earth

Space has always fascinated me, from childhood days of reading graphic illustrated books on space to now, reading all theories and question related to space, time and universe..

Once in a while i get triggered and start looking and finding more about the space... universe... and this time i was triggered by my room-mate and young friend, happu. Happu, wanted to find a qestion which could not be easily answered by looking up at google, which he wanted to submit at his class discussion board. And there we were, running our "think-tanks" to look out for the ultimate question. And as it would have had gone, i again... landed up on the vast emptiness of the space.

There are all these wonderful "things" i think of and get amazed like...wormholes, time relativity, time travel, and Einstein's time dilation theory to name a few.

....<...i am right now writing and editing this text...and if u happen to read this, please check back later....usually i write in one go, but this one is an exception, and so i will work on it..and will take "my own time"... :) >



links:
Current day and night view at Earth

Solar System Live

Home Planet, a comprehensive astronomy / space / satellite-tracking package

Earth & Moon Viewer

Out-of-body-experience OBEs

I first heard the term in a documentary movie at the National Geographic channel. Since then I came across a lot of online articles, self thought process and vlogs from youtube. and every time I stumble on this term... it sounds so amazing and I wish I could achieve this one day...there’s so much I wish to do... when m not in my body...



Coming back to the topic :) ..., the documentary covered how patients under operations in a number of hospitals have told exactly what was going on when their body was being operated. People have being telling of how they could feel the weightlessness and could feel floating, and were able to pass through doors, walls... According to what I have read as of date... this phenomena is explained scientifically as the sub-conscious mind waking up... when we are not sleeping, out conscious mind is active, which controls the nervous system and all of our body movements. Sub-conscious mind is a energy house... which is powerful but not fully active.



Something not exactly OBE but half waking up thing happened to me...It was summer of 2002. I took a nap after lunch. After some time, I felt thirsty and woke up... I still remember what I saw, ... I saw my room, normal...and I found myself lying on my bed (again, normal)... I moved my head towards the water jug on my right and tried to get up... I felt pain in my body, as I forced it to get up... I realized in spite of my will, I can not move anything below my neck... my hand refused to move a bit... I was amazed and applied all will and force, to which I got an acute pain in my hand, which lasted a few days. I realized... that maybe its "bad-timing" or maybe I am dreaming very realistically and gave up....and slowly fall asleep. When I woke up, not much time had passed; I could move all my body… wow...!! But the pain remained...which told me that what I had witnessed was not a dream!

I got up, googled it and found related to sub-conscious mind... more googling landed to the out of body experience, which thrilled and excited me... there are lot of events and groups doing research on OBEs, there are numerous books written and lots of people who have witnessed OBE. I wish I could too get OBE... the first thing I wish to do, is to go and see how the girl is, I care of...and that she does not even know of..!!! amazing... I really feel that lots of things in this world are wonders... and one has to witness it, to know it better...

I might have made no sense at all... but what the heck... as I said earlier... one has to witness it to know it better.... if still someone is reading this (un-realistic)... these links can be browsed...






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqlhkPkpNMM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6zHbeMhuRA&mode=related&search=

Microsoft's Windows Vista vs Apple's iPhone

........




A generalist's question would be, "how do they even match up to be compared?” Nice Question. Well, here, I see it beyond technology. It's about being out ther and being visible and up on the list.

When you see the CES keynote by Bill Gates, you literally say "wow". Which Microsoft already knows that you will eventually say :) That’s Bill Gate's vision. It's a splendid launch event. I find Vista a part of milestone and am focused more on end-users who see PCs as entertainment platforms rather then anything else. Technologies like shadow-copy and previous version was laready there in win 2k pro and 2k3 server. In Vista, Mirosoft has brought it up-front and easy to use for end-users. With the aero 3D and glassy looks, it is more then enough to impress audience. Just try your hands on Vista, and you will like it. So thats Vista, fun, easy, better on entertainment with 3D preinstalled games, awesome looks...
I know, i am coming down to the point... just wanted to give a feel of Vista. So lets have a look at iPhone too...

iPhone, as Apple puts it, is the 3rd revolution after...first Mac, then iPod and then comes iPhone. Integrating advanced phone features, Internt capabiltites and an iPod all in 1. And not to mention that it runs on OS X and uses Safari (Apple's proprietry web browser) to surf net. The iPhone has a touch screen, is very thin and light weight. Apple calls it a revolution in phone technology, and so think people here.

I have come across numerous people who simply love iMacs and iPods and fans of Apple. I haven't seen this kind of fanfare back home. Microsoft comes up during their talks, but only in jokes about their products. I feel like left alone among all the Apple fans... coz internally i know, how much i adore Bill gates and how much i desire to work with him.

You see, I am good at drifting, ...:p so let’s get back to the topic... Yes, i was talking about setting the comparison here between the launch of Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's Vista. What i have noticed is Microsoft had Vista, which is an "end-user" centric OS, with all the "finding" and workflow features too. Other then this Microsoft did not have anything else in their arsenal, except for future plans for live home and bus-chart.. And oh.. I almost forgot this,... of .. Integratig their technology into Ford's latest automobiles. Believe me.. That’s true.. Microsoft's theme was of "staying connected", wherever you are. And the theme relates to their future plans, not just Vista.

Whereas, Apple had a product in their hands which truly looked like a revolution and it was hilarious when Steve Jobs said, "We have got patents on this already".... then iPhone have collabration with Google Earth and Yahoo. When you see the product demonstration, you feel like the product is not a 'hi-tech'..or "sci-fi" thing... it's something, which belongs to our generation and we need it. So it is impressing.

I call it "vs", because... the competition was not of technology but more of retaining and being in the show... so no one forgets. There are two things i have noticed, in business, first.. Consumers' memory is short... (They need to be impressed time and again by companies and their products) ... and second that... out of sight is out of mind... & this is exactly the reason it was a versus for the both companies this time....especially for Microsoft.
Although, it appears both wants to capture the entertainment user base by coming up with games, zunes, xboxe 360s, iPods, iPhones so fast that the users will find it hard to see it coming and even hard to digest it all....

I am amazed at the speed of things happening around. Maybe theres something which runs faster then light... and maybe in near future we will have a new term which will replace the term lightyear.. ... Just wondering... dont take on my words... :)