Serene, I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind nor tide nor sea; I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, For lo! My own shall come to me --
by John Burroughs
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Burning inside...
I have been meaning to complete this poem for many years. Maybe the words will flow today...
This video is one of the coolest I have seen in a while! Ever wonder how search happens? Turns out, its using Post-It notes. I LOLed when the search reached the video section - you will never expect it!
As always Ballmer was entertaining - even though he was in PR mode for quite some time.
Some of the lighter moments from the interview I enjoyed:
When talking about Macbook Air, Ballmer grabbed the laptop from Kawasaki and waved it around yelling: My Toshiba is lighter than this... And where's the DVD drive?!!
Answering one of the audience questions on when web-developers were going to get some love, like Developers (referring, of course, to this), Ballmer stood up and repeated his developer mantra, this time for web developers.
On the serious side, he spoke about the Yahoo deal, Silverlight and a host of other issues.
Overall, a fun interview to watch :) Before parting, let me share a remix video on the theme - Developers!
First, CNN interviewed Michael Moore about his latest film Sicko. However, just before they began the interview, they ran a report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta that claimed that Moore fudged some of the facts in his movie. Moore lost it when he heard that and blasted CNN for biased reporting, urging them to "tell the American people the truth" once in all these years. He also promised to post the facts on his website showing how all the facts in the movie were correct.
A day later, CNN admitted that they got some of their numbers wrong.
Finally, Gupta and Moore met head to head on Larry King Live, where they tried to explain their respective positions. As an impartial observor, I felt that Moore was basically right in principle, and while issue may be taken with his impolite behavior onscreen, we have to understand that not everyone can be sauve and smooth on television; however, that does not mean they are not speaking the truth, nor does it undermine the point they are making. Regarding specific objections about wait times being longer in Canada, I think these are observations tangential to the main discussion. If wait times are longer in Canada, they are much better in England and Australia, and nobody has claimed that the US clone the system in Canada or England. This is a discussion towards making a better health care system in USA, and the underlying intention is not to find solitary faults in other systems that are cited as examples, but to rectify faults in your own: if waiting times are longer in Canada, import that part of English policy that makes waiting times in UK shorter. If taxes are higher in France, look at what other countries are doing to keep them in check. Why should we pick up and slice and dice facts, when clearly this is a discussion about what is wrong with the system here: and it seems most people agree that it could use some reforms. Here is the head-to-head on Larry King Live:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
On a parting note, am I the only one who felt annoyed that Larry King kept prompting them to finish their answers and indicating that they had only 'x' seconds left to answer? Let your guests make their points, thats the whole freaking point of inviting them to your show! Ah well, but what can you expect of a news network show that bumped Michael Moore's spot on Larry King just because Paris Hilton wanted to share her "growth as a person in prison".
I am posting a clip of Paul Potts singing Opera from the 'Britain's Got Talent' competition. The story of Paul is the story of the audacity of hope (a phrase I borrow from Barrack Obama's famous 2004 keynote speech for John Kerry and which is also a 'must-listen'). Paul Potts, till just a couple of weeks back, worked as a phone salesman. But he always dreamt of making a career in singing.
As Paul was about to begin his audition for Britain's got talent, one could see that the judges were almost sure he would not come up with anything special. But, really, delving a bit deeper, I realized that I too was prejudiced against him at some unknown level. I wanted him to do well but didn't really feel he would. What is it inside us, that makes us discount people or their talent without so much as giving them a single change to prove themselves? What Paul reminds us is to give people a chance to show the world who they really are, before dismissing them. Here is what Paul came up with that day:
There are still some doubting Thomases who question his real talent and some even compared him unfavorably to Pavarotti, the famous opera singer. No doubt singing is about technique and style, but singing is also about emotions, about believing in the song, about making your audience feel the song and winning their hearts. And thats what Paul did. Needless to say, he won the competition:
When I first saw Twitter, it seemed to me like an entertaining but mostly useless exercise in vanity. However, the more I use it (see What am I doing on the RHS of this page), read about it and see it being used, I get convinced that there is some value here.
Can you believe it, John Edwards has a twitter page! What a great way to tell your voters what you have been thinking about, talking about and where you are at. Of course, these could easily be fake, like this one for Bill Clinton. Although the John Edwards one looks genuine.
Also found a similar twitter page for woot.com recently, where followers could get texted or IMed about a new product as soon as it as posted. It seems whenever instant status updates are required, be it product updates, shuttle/train progress or just plain lovebird updates for people who want to keep a check on their better halves, this might be a useful thing to have.
Is it just me or are the twitter guyz on to something here?
This is the most amazing wildlife video I have seen in a long long time. You have to see it to believe it! It is also an amazing insight into the power of parental instinct to save one's kids, no matter what the danger is.
I am posting one of my favorite poems today, called "She walks in beauty..."
I had this poem in my Radiant Readers textbook in 7th grade.... I was very curious about it and really wanted our teacher to teach this poem, because I hadn't understood it by myself... Unfortunately, our english teacher thought it was too romantic a poem for our age and skipped it!
But I came back to read this poem a few years later... and this time I understood it much more... and came to appreciate Byron's definition of beauty of his love:-
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace
How amazing are these lines! He says... she is beautiful exactly as she is, and could not possibly be any more beautiful... in fact, even the smallest change in her will take away half her beauty... a beauty of such high proportions that he doesn't even know a way to describe it!...
Its an amazing read... take it away!
She walks in beauty...
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!
I love lunch at my workplace. Its almost always a dilemma deciding where to eat and once that is decided, is the question of what all to eat (because there are so many choices!). When you do decide all that though, you are ready to have some goooooooood food!
Take today, for example.
I began with a nice hot "hearty vegetable soup".
Then I had some delicious "wild mushroom ricosto rice"... I loved this, the way ricosto rice is made makes it a little wet and a little sticky and you can take my word for it, its very nice...
This was followed by "fried eggplant" with a peculiar looking green paste, almost like the dosa chutney you get in south Indian restaurants.
Hmm... a little of this and that, don't remember now...
A "fresh fruit salad"... pretty good...
And wound up the whole deal with a "blackberry cheese cake"... well, only ate half of this though... Halfway through it I was reminded of all the hard work I have been putting in at the gym :-|
So yeah, that kinda stopped the joyride and I trudged my way back to my office, reflecting on a job well done!
Any opinions on this blog are my own and do not in any way reflect the views of my employerDrop in a word to me at: deepdata AT gmail.com
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Spotlight
Books currently reading:
For One More Day - Mitch Albom
The World Is Flat - Thomas Friedman
The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi - Salam Pax
Baghdad Burning 2 - Girl Blog from Iraq - Riverbend
