Bits and Bytes from my Life

I love my job and there is nothing more interesting that building something from nothing… I have designed various products including XML integration gateway for ERP system, Process management framework, Bar coding solution, RFID developers kit etc… But I still dream, dream of something different… A 2nd job. Somehting that I would love in addition to what I do…

So here are some jobs that I dream of doing…
1. Pizza delivery guy: I just love this one. This is at top of my list. There is nothing like delivering pizza and then getting a tip from the customer.. Don’t know why everytime I order a pizza I am jealous of the guy delivering it…

2. Truck driver: I want to drive a truck.. Not the one we normally see in India but the huge ones you see in US or in english movies. How they are amazing. IF they pass by your car your car literally starts shivering… It will be fun to drive one of those to deliver a cargo from New york to Orlando to San Fransisco(via Vegas) to Washington and Back to NY… Wow what a drive that will be.. Fun and get paid for it.

3. Car Sales Man: Man I have bought 3 cars till date in US. Man the car sales guys are amazing. IF you want to sell something you should sell Cars here. The tricks they play are amazing. I would love to learn the tricks of the trade. After selling cars here I can even sell you hell and charge you for heaven..

4. Become chat show host: When ever I see guys taking interviews on TV I feel I can do much better job. I surely want to do this. That too chat with only politicians. Nothing like pulling their legs on national TV.

5. Fork Lift driver: I have implemented integration soln and bar coding soln at various companies. I have spent quite a few hours with guys on shop floor/shipping docks. One thing tht has always intrigued me is the job of Fork lift driver. Man is that fun.. I just love it.

6. Caddy: I have been driving around a golf course community a lot these days. I would love to be a caddy. One of the reason is driving golf cart. Man seems ot be fun again. Other than that will get a chance to walk around the golf course. They are so beautifull.

7. Pilot: It has been my dream to become a pilot. This one has been there from childhood. Everytime I fly I look at the pilot and say to my self “mera bhi din ayega”. I wanted to learn flying but then those bastards crashed the flights in WTC and my dream went on hold. But some day I would love to learn to fly. Become a pilot and maybe fly around the world. Wow what fun will that be…

So here is just few jobs I dream about… So what do you all say??? Enjoy…

1. How do you call command line application or program from .NET applications?
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@”somthing.bat”);

2. How to you start your browser from .NET application?
string target= @”http://www.cnn.com”;
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(target);

Enjoy…

Author : Paulo Coelho
Recommended to me by: Nisha

This is my fav book. This is one book everyone should read. Do I say that for every book? :) But no this is one book really everyone should read. This is not about current affairs or some novel or anything. It is about life. It is about achieving ur dreams.

Book talks about a journey of a young guy achieving his dreams. What he learns on his way. Author talks about omen’s. God gives you hints at every stage of your life it is you who has to pick them up and proceed in your life. It tell you about

Truths and omens come and go like grains of sand and desert winds in this Celestine Prophecy-like tale of our alchemical kinship with one another in mind and spirit. It teaches us about our inherited strengths, which many of us sadly fail to realize as we go through life.

It is a very simple and good read. You will be able to read it in just few days. I will recommend this to everyone of u. So do read and tell me if you liked it…

Enjoy.

You know I am famous to be impatient. I do everything impulsively. Most importantly buying stuff. You all will not believe I came to US in Feb 2001. In 15-30 days I bought my first car. It was a BMW 325i. It was beautiful. I had tough time getting loan as in US they want u to have credit history and all but I could make my way around it as I was working for a very big company.

Anyway then around end of that year I had gone to see a model home for Sanjana(she is like my sister). Model home completely decorated house builder shows you. I loved the model home so much that within a month or so I signed a contract for the house..:) I got possession of the house around 2002 August as it takes time to build the whole house.:)

I can give u endless examples similar to these including my furniture, Flat screen LCD TV, Our Ford Mustang(second car),Selling our first house etc… I have to tell u this one. I was waiting for my decision for my UNC MBA application. I got an approval on saturday in mail and we signed contract on our second home that sunday. Just 2 days. Ofcourse we had looked at the home before. But everyone was surprised I bought it in a day.:)

But here is the latest stuff. Now for last few days I have been feeling impatient again and it is one of those urges to buy something I cannot control. I have been looking for houses. (You all know we bought 1 just last september Link) Why do I need a house? No reason… I have been looking at apartments/bunglows in mumbai and single family homes in Raleigh area… YOu will not believe I even took Swati to one of the golf course comminities today Governors Club. It is beautiful . There were some amazing homes there. We spend 3 hours looking/driving around…At the end on our way back Swati asks me why do u need another house? I am like. Aise hi dekhne me kya harz hai? (Just like that what is the harm in looking)

U will ask why looking in Mumbai? Maybe if I want to return to India and stay in Mumbai then I should have a house in Hiranandani Powai right… www.hiranandani.com.

Do I have money for to buy another house “oh hell no” I don’t but I am sure some bank does. There is lot of money in banks and which they are happy to give to people like me…:):)

So Enjoy…

Hi all I have posted review of The world is flat on my book reviews post. It is a great book. HAve a look.

Also I got this great story about great performance from a friend which I have posted on my Management blog. It is a good read..

Enjoy…

Author : Thomas L. Friedman.
Today I completed reading this book. It took a while but it is one of the most important books I have read. IT is actually an eye opener. Every person who wants to excel or even survive in this global world should read this book. It is worth a read.

The book is about globalization. Author talks about a flat world. How technology has brought everyone in the world to the same level playing field. How 11/9 and 9/11 have changed the world. One was the day when berlin wall fell and world was united(East and West) and one was the day terrorists attacked USA.

Author has done a great job of explaining every aspect of globalization. He explains why the world has become flat in last few years. Why India and China have an edge. What should a person do to survive in the world and how we can solve problems in the world keeping the flat world in mind. Finally author also explains the problems in unflat world especially conservative communities of Arab Muslims and what needs to be done to get them up to the speed. He tries to compare the Muslim population in India which is progressive and forward looking to the one in Saudi or Egypt where they feel opressed…

Great read. Everyone should read this book. I was so impressed by this book I gave J my fried at work a copy of it as gift… U guys need to read it…. Get it today…:)

Picture this:
It’s the Friday night before Christmas in a large bookstore. The lines at the register are consistently 50 to 60 people deep, and have been all day.
The staff is tired, and the managers have been on a mandatory six-day workweek since November. All eight registers have been going nonstop for hours, when suddenly, at around 8 PM, the registers crash. Not freeze, not need rebooting, but completely shut down. All of them. At the same time!
With 60 people in line! Time to panic?

Ah… there’s where great performance comes in.

Rebecca is the manager there, and she jumps into the emerging chaos.
Quickly one supervisor is on the phone paging the IT department, and Rebecca has a basket of candy and is moving down the restless line of customers, explaining what is happening, giving each person some candy, and assuring them that a solution will be found shortly. No one leaves the line.

Ten minutes later the IT department is trying to get the registers working again, and Rebecca is walking down the line with coffee, explaining to each customer how very sorry we are, what options they have (leaving their info and us shipping the items later, putting items on hold, etc.), and offering them coffee. 20 more people have joined the line. No one leaves the line.

Twenty minutes. IT is frantically bringing the computers back up, and Rebecca goes back down the line, this time with bottles of water and $5.00 gift certificates, good anytime, apologizing and letting the customers know we expect to be back online in the next 5 to 10 minutes. Four people leave the line – leaving their info with us so we can mail their purchases (free of charge) to them the next day.

Thirty minutes – the registers are finally back up. The line stretches to the back of the store with over 100 people waiting. Rebecca makes an announcement over the paging system, and a cheer goes up through the store!
Almost every employee is at the registers, ringing, bagging, and Rebecca is still going up the line, thanking everyone for hanging in there.

Registers were down for half an hour, on one of the busiest days of the year, and we still beat budget by over 20%. Why? Because Rebecca demonstrated all the qualities we look for – honest, sincere, friendly, knowledgeable, and most importantly – she brought it all together into professionally handling a daunting situation with grace. We didn’t lose a single customer, and she got a letter from the CEO thanking her. The supervisors who were working that night all chipped in to treat her to dinner. I also received about 10 phone calls and 3 letters from customers complimenting her behavior.

Now that’s what great performance looks like!

By Darlene Pineda

Today I read a great post by ruchi “The White Maruti” She mentioned about sleeping while driving… So here is one of my experiences on the subject…

It was long back I guess in 2002 around september. It was sunday and I was in office with our president and we had to work on some recruitments and other stuff. We almost worked whole night that day.. Next day was monday and I was suppose to visit Wacker in Milwaukee, WI. So I did not sleep whole night and took an early morning flight to Chicago midway airport. The flight was at 6:00am and it landed in Chicago at 7:00am. It was 2 hours flight… US mein 3 toh time zones hai. So I slept in the flight. A bit side track…. There was a time when I did not see take off and landing of flights. I use to sleep before the flight took of and got up after flight had landed and it did not matter the time of the flight(morning, afternoon or evening…).

So I landed in Chicago and rented a car and started my drive. It is around 2.5 hours of drive from Chicago to Milwaukee. I had not slept enough and I could feel it… But I was confident… KEpt reminding myself not to sleep. Drove for around 1.5 hours or so. Kept reminding me again and again not to sleep… Then the moment came and suddenly everything became dark…

When I opened by eyes I was driving at 80 Miles per hour, I was going to hit the road divider on a highway was actually driving in the reserved lane for cops. I was lucky I immediately pulled back in the fastest lane. I was lucky no one was there and car was good stable one(not an SUV). For one moment my heart stopped beating. I was dead scared. I felt I had dodged YAMRAJ(not Sanjay dutt)… It was an experience.. It was scary actually I can never explain in words what I felt. Abhi bhi jab soachta huin to rongte ghade ho jate hain…

Next thing I did was pulled over in next exit and took some coffee and called up G and H in office and asked them to talk to me as I was still feeling sleepy. They are very good friends and we kept talking for next 1 hour till I reached Wacker office.

So it is not just the person sitting next to the driver but also the ones sitting in office who are not suppose to sleep they are suppose to talk to you..:):)

Enjoy… And never drive when you are sleepy…

Here is a great article on Http Authentication by Joe Gregorio. Really nice read…
Click here

Here is a great article on Http Authentication by Joe Gregorio. Really nice read…
obfuscated_email();
Click here