MyJottingz

Dumb little man has some interesting tips on how to save time
Here are some that I really liked

• Prepare as much as you can to make mornings stress free. Set out clothes. Have bags packed and by the door. Make your lunch and have your breakfast chosen and partially prepared. Have a travel coffee mug ready. Put the coffee in the coffee maker.

• Don't put your car keys or cell phone in a different spot each night after work. Choose a spot and make it a habit. There is nothing more frustrating in the morning than looking for the stuff you need. You WILL go nuts if you go through a scavenger hunt every single morning.

• Wake up 15 minutes earlier and prepare breakfast instead of waiting in line and paying extra at the coffee shop.

For more on these see 35+ Spectacular and Practical Time Saving Tips

Labels: efficiency, life, time savers

Vivek Sharma talks about India's Twenty20 quarterfinal win and coming through in a crunch (@ Desicritics.org)

Amit Varma has this curious story about a couple who had online affairs only to discover that their online beaus were themselves. Love gone wrong in 2007 (@ Indiauncut)

And finally Amit Agarwal has a cool way to find out if your computer is connected to the web without your knowledge(@ Digital Inspiration)

The interesting thing about Jaideep is that at no point does he say,"I always wanted to write Bollywood films." But he did take different bends in the road which eventually led him there.

Firstly, he quit the engineering-IT way of life pretty early to do 'something creative' - in advertising. I am sure when he made that leap of faith he would have suffered a temporary loss of income (trainee copywriters are never paid as much as IT types!).

When he stumbled upon scriptwriting, he pursued it. And became a student without a 'teacher'. The vast resources of the internet are available to all of us, but how many use them in the way he did?
Then, at some point Jaideep quit advertising to work independently

Rashmi Bansal has a great post on Jaideep Sahni the script writer of Chak de India, Khosla ka Ghosla & Company.

Here are Jaideep's interviews in the Sunday Express and India FM

Via - Chuck de, India

Labels: bollywood, career, films, script wirting

Those who are into music will relate to this.

Just as people recognize colors (which of course is pretty normal), some lucky ones have the ability to recognize a musical note upon hearing it.
e.g. If a note on a piano was 'E' they can instantly recognize it.
Of course good musicians are able to do this naturally, therefore they are able to play a song 'by ear' as they say or even tune a guitar without a tuner.

NPR has this story.

Also Wikipedia has a whole lot of info on Absolute Pitch

Labels: music recognition

Ok I know thats a very dramatic title but it's true.
A teenager gives away myspace layouts free and by the power of google ads makes so much money that she can afford to drop out of school, buy a house etc. Read the entire story it's inspiring.

Via Girl Power - Whateverlife.com

Labels: ads, google, internet, myspace

My brother forwarded this to me and I thought it was worth sharing:

"An interesting reflection. : Slow Down Culture

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalization processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned
companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means
taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you
while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world. "


Wikipedia has and some more insight on this.

Labels: life, productivity, slow down

For those who have still not woken up to Google Docs, it's like a web-based free Google version of MS Office. It's online so you can access it from any computer and it is catching up with features to the real Office

If you have a google account, you can get to it by clicking "more" on the Google Home Page or simply go to http://docs.google.com/

Amit Agarwal has some cool tricks on using Google Docs.

• Email documents to an email address : Since Google Docs provides you with a secret email address - any document or email that you send to this address would be save a new document in Google Docs which can edited or shared later.
• Convert Html Webpages or Word Docs to PDF which is as simple as "Save As PDF"
  

For more on this check out How are you using Google Docs ?

Labels: docs, google, office, tricks

Made some changes to my blog this weekend.
The header banner has been changed. I have also added this cool feature at Aide RSS which analyzes your blog and actually rates your top posts based on how well they were received. You can see my top posts on the right hand side.
Then I have also added my Del.icio.us link roll it is at the bottom on the right.

And lastly I have changed by RSS feed to a full feed from FeedBurner. In case you are wondering what is an RSS Feed? Read my post on what is an RSS Feed.

There has always been a debate where a lot of folks leaned in favor of the partial feed but the tide is changing towards full feeds and I thought I should do the same.

And as always look forward to any comments or suggestions that you as a reader might have toward making this a better blog.

Labels: rss