May 2007 : The busiest month for my blog

This month saw most activity on my blog. I have posted 13 new items till date and added visitors from all over the world, including Down Under.

I hope to keep up the enthusiasm and energy level.

The Google Story

I just finished reading this book. It provides good insight into how this phenomenon started, what was going in the background, how it made money and how it successfully handled an IPO on the wall street. It also describes some of the key philosophies at Google i.e. Don't be Evil.

It has a thriller like speed and a novel like detail.
All in all, a good read if you are smitten by the Google bug.

Kimi disappoints again

In the last weekend Monaco GP, Kimi screwed up his qualifying and started the race from P16...
8th row in a narrow street circuit in Monaco makes sure that it will not help much in your driver championship. After retiring in previous race at Spain, it was another disaster waiting to happen.

Due to one pit stop strategy, he was able to finish 8th and get one point. However the point difference has increased to fifteen, which is not a very comfortable position if you want to fight for driver championship.

And, Mclaren is showing salutable reliability and awesome speed. Lewis Hamilton has shown best rookie performance till date by finishing all five races on podium. One thing for sure, Ferrari is going to have tough time fighting it over with Mclaren. Kimi should ready himself for getting some firing from Jean Todt.

And, Mclaren has acknowledged that it asked both the drivers to contain themselves during final round of the race when they were in a comfortable lead and Hamilton was giving a good competition to team mate Alonso. There are some charges of Team orders. But in my opinion, these charges doesn't stand any ground, as team didn't order any specific driver to slow down or allowed a pass. It is just that it asked the drivers to be bit more cautious keeping in mind the nature of Monaco circuit which is prone to accidents.


Lets hope Canada brings better result for Kimi and Ferrari both. Amen

Bloglink: Wanderlust Gaurav Sharma

It is a bird? No... It is a plane? No... .It is Superman? No... It is Gaurav Sharma..

He is new to blogger, just started blogging... he thinks it is a fad and it looks cool,/geek/ nerdy to have a blog of yourself...he even believes it can get you laid...
Just do some ego massage for him by visiting:

http://wanderlust-gaurav.blogspot.com/

Enjoi.. if you can.

The week went by

The week, which is going on, is getting quite hectic for me.... So much to do, so less time.
Anyways, i sneaked some time from my schedule and I thought I should write something.

First, First Major phase of my System Centre Lifecyle Project is over now. We move to the Second Major Phase which is doubly complex and we are not very sure whether we will be able to deliver or not.

Second, I was preparing for my Windows Vista webinar. This is my first one, so I don't want to screw it up.

Not much to write about on the personal side..

And I am eagerly awaiting Monaco GP. I hope Kimi Raikkonen wins this time.

Main aur Mere One liners

• I don't want to be Kumar Gaurav, the one hit wonder
• Courtesies should be reciprocated
• Khaali Haath Ja rahe hain hum, Khaali Haath Aayenge
  
• There is an information overload, you need to filter
  
• To be a project manager, you need technical knowledge.. You need so that you can ask the right questions.
  

Note: these are thought on the spot and delivered to audience which was not very susceptible to these kind of remarks. However, I don't regret what I said.

Books I am reading

In the past few months I read

• Paulo Coelho - Eleven Minutes
• John Grisham - The Client
• Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram
• Thomas L. Friedman - The World is Flat

I am currently reading The Google Story by David A. Vise.
The next book on my shelf is The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen.

P.S. I don't think of myself competent enough to write book reviews :)

Spider racing in a Metro

Ok... the title of the post is bit confusing but it is intended so..

Lets start with Spider-man 3 . It is a long movie, dragging at a slow pace and with all those typical Bollywood style. It has many goofs... like when Marko Flint gets into that Physics Reactor, why everything converts to sillicon except the pendant which contains his daughter's photo? there are many other similar goofs all throughout the movie, which doesn't seem to end.
Rating: 2.5/5

Now quickly we move on to Ta Ra Rum Pum which was another disappointment despite being from Yash Raj banner. The movie has a very old time story feeling with new packaging where the protagonist is a racing driver. Otherwise, it has nothing much to offer.
Rating: 2/5

However, I was third time lucky. It was Life in a Metro, directed by Anurag Basu. Having a big list of characters and multiple intertwined stories running in parallel, it had a fresh feel. Neatly packaged, fast paced, away from fake drama and emotion, the movie registers itself with you especially with young urban crowd of india. The end was a bit of hastily scripted. The songs accelerates the story but the videos are irritating as you see the Metro Band performing in each of the song.
Rating:3.5/5

Continuous Improvement - Part II

Living upto myself, I couldn't control to make certain tweaks to the blog. One, I have removed del.icio.us links from the feed as it was flooding the blog feed. Second I have added another section on left sidebar which allows you to subscribe to the feed using email.

Bouquets and brickbats welcome.

Vista Zero Touch Webinar

Yours truly had worked on a project in partnership with Microsoft. It was a solution innovation project where our team developed a unique solution around enterprise wide Windows Vista deployment. The solution was also judged as the best solution by Microsoft. I have already given the solution presentation to 6 customers and hope to see good increase in top line.

Now, under the Microsoft Technology Community Program (TCP) , I am doing a webinar on the technology side. This will be my first webinar so will be for TCP. The webinar will be broadcasted on May 25, 2007 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM IST. I am all prepared and I hope it goes well. I will publish the webinar invitation mailer once I receive the final version.


Update: Here is the mailer

_________________________________________________________

Live Meeting Details

Click Here to Join Live Meeting


Subject: Vista Zero Touch Deployment webinar
Meeting URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join
Meeting ID: GS7SM7
Meeting Key: zerotouch
Role: Attendee

This meeting will broadcast internet audio directly to your computer.

Please ensure that you have Windows Media Player 9 or higher installed.

Conference Call Details:

US Access: 001 203 480 8000

Pass code 6339416

India Access

New Delhi Access: (011) 4422-3031 / 2654-0731

Hyderabad Access: (040) 4422-3033 / 2348-8233

Chennai Access: (044) 2831-0734 / 4422-3034

Meeting ID: 4258 2790#

PIN Code: 1878892#

Online Features:

*0 - Operator Assistance

*6 - Self Mute / Unmute

At Gateway of North East

On 28th of April, I boarded early morning IndiGo flight from Delhi Airport which landed at Guwahati Airport at 08:30. And the first thing I noticed was the pleasant weather. This was a breath of fresh air for us Delhiites who suffer from aggressive mercury and rising pollution levels. There was greenery all around and last night rainfall was adding that extra chill in the air.

Now the purpose, I went there for a cousins marriage. The ceremony was grand as they had two Performance Evenings, one by professional artists (including Gaurav Sharma of Laughter Champion fame and Juhi Parmar of Kumkum) and second one by family members. And a big reception and dinner party the third day. The whole ceremony lasted whole three day which is kind of rare these days. I also put my camera's 10x zoom, 2 GB card and 6 megapixel resolution to good use ;)

And it seems that being an MBA and working as MT in a Top 5 Indian IT company also makes you most eligible bachelor as I gave introductions to 20+ uncles/aunts of mine, many of them I have never seen before.

Last day, I went to Kamakhya temple but somehow didn't like that place much. No offense.
I also roamed in Fancy Bazaar which is quite famous but was a disappointment for me.

One more thing, there is a railway line which goes across the city and there is only one flyover. At ll other level crossings, 50% of the time the traffic is closed to pass the trains. Other infrastructure is not upto the mark either. Being a state capital and The Gateway to North East, the city deserves bit more than that.

So after four days of welcome break from tiring work schedule, I returned on next Wednesday when for a change the weather at Delhi was also likable.

Kimi Raikkonen and reliability issues

Kimi Raikkonen and reliability seem to be synonyms. After an eventful courtship with Mclaren, where he had 30 retirements/DNF in last 5 Years (that is 6 per year... his record with Sauber was not great either, 7 retirements in a single year), he jumped ship and moved to Ferrari, which was known for its reliability.

At Ferrari, where he was replacing Michale Schumacher, the expectations were already very high. And till now, he is not able to match up. He has won the Australian GP, finished third in Malaysia and Bahrain... and living up to his old records, failed to finish in Spain.

I somehow fail to understand the reasons!! is it purely because he tries to get maximum out of the machinery and in the process forgets the limitation of machinery and blows it up??

Disclaimer: I am a diehard Kimi fanboy.

Lewis Hamilton - The new force to reckon

Lewis Hamilton is a formula 1 driver from McLaren Team and is a rookie in the sport. But considering his performance in first four races, Rookie title seems to be a misnomer for this guy. In his maiden F1 Championship, he is leading the driver table and poised to finish in top three this very first year. This is inspite of not winning a single race but finishing all four on podium.

Consistency surely takes you far...

Hibernating?

For past few weeks, I was not able to post on the blog... but it doesn't mean that I was hibernating. I was pretty much active and I could say that it was one of the most busiest month in my last year. There are lots of things happening at professional and personal life. I need time to jot them down.

Some Ideas:

• Lewis Hamilton
• Kimi Raikkonen
• Travelogue - Guwahati
• My offending one liners
• Camera
• Webinar
• Movie Review
  

I will be soon writing on these items. This is just a promotional post in the meantime :)