Friday, February 25, 2005

Improv Everywhere

Pranks, can u call this any better. This guy set out on a mission which is really mind-boggling. Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 40 missions involving over 100 undercover agents. The group is based in New York City. They have an FAQ also.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

The danger of SMS - useful one

Krishna sent me this info...might be of help to others.

This lady has changed her habit on the handphone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag which contain her mobile, credit card,purse etc....was stolen. 20min later when she called her hubby, telling him what happened. Husband says "I've just received your SMS asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago". When they rushed down to the bank, Bank staff told them all the $ already been withdrawn. The pickpocket have actually used the stolen handphone to sms "hubby" and got hold of the pin number.Within 20 mins withdraw all the money from the bank account. So please remember, try not to disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using name like Home, Honey, Hubby,sweetheart, Dad, Mum etc...... and very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked thru SMS, CONFIRM by calling back

Monday, February 21, 2005

Photo Sharing

Chandra suggests to use Photoleap for online Photos.

Photographs are for sharing. But it hasn't always been easy to share digital photos - until now. Introducing Photoleap, a better way to share..That's what Photoleap says..

Friday, February 18, 2005

Most Pretty of 3

I always felt handicap for not having B&W option in my Sony digi cam, but with new Picasa 2 I don’t feel it any more. I just started wondering how my life has become Unusually Simply Bored did I say that simply bored no it’s Unusually Simply Broadened. I’m talking of the number of USB devices we have today. In particular we have the Flash memory in an EEPROM: Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory, this is to technical term for the simple memory card. It’s durable to the other storage methods is simply flashy. Flash storage is very hardy indeed. It comes in handy and helps us right from storing picture to playing music. Last weekend I went to Carrerfour to buy a memory stick for my Valentine, oh girls please read it as gift for one girl for the Valentine’s Day. There in Carrerfour I saw my Most Pretty of 3 Valentine. Wanna have a look at click here, Oh people I'm happy to share this news as I have it now ;-)

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

HEC School of Management - Paris

Hi Wanna apply for HEC, submit u r profile before you apply and evaluate it here

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Project phases - Dirty dozen

I had been inventing about this for a while :-) I wanted to name the dozen phases of a project life cycle to start with the letter D. So here I go... Please feel free to leave some comments if any thing can be changed. I have made a logical grouping using color codes, with little explanation on them. All copyrights reserved ;-)
  • Discover - Business Process Reengineering / A new project out of Business Analysis
  • Discuss - Scope definition / Project Charter
  • Define - Business process definition / Planning / Budget
  • Decide - RFP / Build or Buy decession / Vendor selection
  • Design - Structural design / Architectural design
  • Develop - Coding / Documentation & Training
  • Deploy - Conference Room Pilot(CRP)
  • Debug - User Acceptance Testing / Post-CRP
  • Deliver - Build & release
  • Distribute - Go live and inform the stake holders
  • Damage Control - Warranty phase - Support for all types (issue/incidence/problems/resolution)
  • Deep support - Phase where the project goes into maintenance mode

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Branding: New lessons to be learnt

I was amazed the way P&G went ahead and purchased Gillette, by doing so they have pushed Unilever, the company I admire the most, to second place.

In relation to this story in businessweek they showed that innovation is a key, and marketing is more diffuse and personal. They had given a five new lessons learnt which is very nice to read, with some case studies.

  • Innovate. Innovate. Innovate - Why would P&G tinker with Tide? Both cases (a)Tide on its variants and stories surrounding that, (b)Tide StainBrush & also on Gillette ability adept at cross-pollination
  • Move Fast - Or Lose Out Not only are customers hooked on innovation, they're demanding it faster with a case on Handbag designer Coach Inc
  • Minimize Exposure to supermarkets (in general to shun supermarkets, where you would get less margins, instead pitch them at convenience stores) & And on the concept of vending machines used by Kellogg Co.
  • The New Media Message - The splintering media hasn't been all bad – then why should you switch to "Print and online were terrific"
  • Think Broadly - Case studies which involve innovations such as the inexpensive spin toothbrush etc. , on Apple Computer iPod & finally on Starbucks getaway story


One year and growing strong

It's been exactly one year since my first blog, scribbling went online. Thanks to Guru , who was always behind me to do this. I think my first post was on a food - fondu. And today I again come back on the same day with the same topic, not with fondue but with another variant called Raclette.

Raclette is a staple of wintertime in Switzerland. If you ask most people which they prefer, fondue or raclette, most will reply raclette. Don't ask me why, I've never understood it. I like fondue myself, which is not to say that I don't enjoy a good raclette.

Raclette

For those of you who haven't a clue, perhaps I'd better explain what it is. Raclette is essentially melted cheese, served over boiled potatoes with lots of ground black pepper, and accompanied by any dish you want to . The name comes from the French verb "racler", to scrape, because of the way the melted cheese is scraped off the block.

We used this nice round device like a grill, which has special pans to melt cheese slices and fry things. Since I'm a vegetarian, just had them with Potatoes. I invited Indu, Natasha & Mugdha to join me for a vegetarian raclette, we missed Niru for the session. I prepared Potatoes with Cauliflower with some garam masala and there we go on a Saturday evening for a session on Veg. Raclette.


Thanks to Indu, I didn't know that we need to scrape off the rind on the Raclette cheese. Also I need to mention that the entire device and the cheese was given by my house owner to me, So thanks to them for making this a memorable one. I keep getting a lot of gifts from them. Yesterday I got a packet of Walnut from them. They are very sweet.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Venice Carnival 2005

I along with a few people in the gang left for Venice. We had to say good bye to Rasika as she was going back to India after her studies. She had mixed feelings, happy that she is going to join with her family and sad about her last day in Grenoble, for very many reasons.

This my second trip to Venice, I went there primarily for the Carnival. It's been a big dream of mine to visit Venice during the Carnival. We had two days and one night for the trip. The story surrounding the carnival has many accounts, one the general carnival story before the Easter etc, what so ever for sure wearing a mark during this event by itself special event in Venice. There are very many stories associated to wearing the mask also. The mask had many uses - to protect gamblers from giving away indiscrete looks, or it was used by "barnaboti" noblemen begging on street corners, the story of Casanova and Camilla seems to be another version of it. Anyway I went there to enjoy the onion rings u get in the Burger King, Cappuccino and for the Pasta & Pizza you get there, along with the toast of Carnival.

Welcome to the Venice Carnival

On Saturday we landed in Venice and was welcomed by the nice gang, dressed for the carnival in the bus stop.
We first entered the St.Marks square and it was giving a festive look. Then we entered the St.Marco's Basilica had a look around, click here to have look at all the famous points around that point. This is Akansha with the people around there.
Then Balaji, Mugdha, Natacha & myself got our face painted then started to go around the city. It was cool watching people around in various masks and costumes. I'm sure no place or event on earth would offer a spectacle like this. During the carnival, Venetians used to dress up in the oddest of ways. A document with the strange title of "Different ways of dressing up for carnival introduced by both men and women alike during the 18th century" lists the different costumes in use. Here is it further read on

Music concert


Music concert
Originally uploaded by Venkata.
We set this day exclusively to watch all the people in various costumes. There was a parade organized in the afternoon which we watched and later in the evening there was this music concert was also organized. We jumped for a while for the music, not dancing for the music and then we were back in the hotel just contended with 2 good songs.

Beach front


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The next day we went to St.Mark's square and from there we headed to the beach island LIDO, so another coast-line covered and added to the list. After playing in the beach for while in the beach and collecting some sea shells, headed straight to Murano island.

Horse Prepared in 2 minutes

Murano Island is famous for the glassworks. Why are Murano's glassmakers so special? For one thing, long back, they were the only people in Europe who knew how to make a mirror. A visit to the island you would offer a free tourist demonstration from the glassblower. We saw a horse being made in just 2 minutes, and water jug in 5-10 minutes. We did some shopping there and then back to St.Mark's square. After finishing our lunch we watched a few more new styles of masks and then headed to Rialto.

Light

Rialto, why are we here. We wanted to go the Casino there, but was not able to make it as men need to be in formals. So we were sad and then did some shopping there and came back to the bus stop and left for Grenoble. While coming back I just clicked this light which was on sale.