Tag Archive for 'Noteworthy'

Growing Up …

Published
by
Shahab
on November 18, 2005
in Anecdotes, Noteworthy, Personal News and Whatever
. 14 Comments

      For most people, growing up is synonymous to getting older. But after living for almost a quarter of century, I look upon my life and realize its much more than just getting older.. Its about getting more experience, getting more ideas , its about getting mature (I seem to hit upon the exact word ) ..

      So here I am, with my life before me … So much time seems to have passed .. I have lived my life as it came .. played, laughed, cried, teased, run, fell, got up, hurt, got hurt, learned, unlearned , forgot , remembered .. I have done it all .. and I liked it … If I’d given chance to life again, I’ll still make the decisions I made, I’ll go from those paths that I went ..

      So what did I learn from all my life’s experiences ..? When I compare myself from what I was 10 years ago, I find many changes in myself … The most prominent one: becoming deliberate from being spontaneous .. Now I think before I act .. and I am no more impatient ..I am now more content then I was ten years ago .. and I am more aggressive .. Perhaps those are the signs of maturity … I now know that maturity isn’t something you’d gain just by being old .. You’ll have to interact… think .. feel … act .. I now know that world isn’t perfect — it was never meant to .. I don’t expect perfect outcomes now .. because if you become perfect, you wont have any chance to improve — which is imperfect in its own .. Over the years I feel becoming more self centered .. which I think is a by product of maturity - or vice versa .. Here too I am talking about myself from the start .. I now feel more confident in being honest about things I feel .. which is a nice thing as I have said everything about myself without any hesitation and without any lie .. Over the years I have seen people’s expectations from me growing .. sometimes I find it choking me .. sometimes I find it very stimulating … I have learned that if you fear something it will keep you haunting for ever .. and if you face it firmly you will conquer it .. .. Be it a memory of someone …

      I stopped celebrating my birthday long ago as I don’t see the logic in people congratulating you on something to which you have no credit .. I’ve been very less emotional from start and I feel birthdays are just like other days .. But I still love the surprise feeling of answering some long lost friends’ call .. Hey .. thats the reason I remember all my friend’s birthdays .. :) ….I dont believe in making resolutions becuase I don’t need any resolution to do something …

      Hmm… I wanna end this monologue now .. So when I look at my 11 year old cousin who now dreams to become a pilot, I get reminded of myself … One can draw his inspiration from anywhere .. and thats why I believe that this is a continous process .. I have yet to see more .. and experience and explore …. Life is meant for learning .. and growing up .. these years will keep coming and going … what counts in the end is how you utilize the time alloted to you …

[Listening to:Why does it always rain on me by Travis]

A User’s Guide to Instant Messengers - II

Published
by
Shahab
on October 23, 2005
in Instant Messeging, Noteworthy, Tech News and Tips n Tricks
. 7 Comments

To continue with my earlier post , Now I will discuss what I want to have in the Instant Messenger of my choice .. Though some proceedings made me to modify my original post. Earlier I had decided that I will point out features separately for both messengers, but now as both Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger will start supporting each other’s networks, I guess the ultimate messenger program they will release around June 2006 will support both program’s features . . .So I will make an ambiguous list that is relevant to most clients. 
A disclaimer: People like me usually chat on text mode. This partly due to chatting with many people at once, being a fast typist and, not wanting to appear as I am talking to my computer for that matter :D..
So, most of the features that I want are related to text conversations …
Continue reading ‘A User’s Guide to Instant Messengers - II’

A User’s Guide to Instant Messengers - I

Published
by
Shahab
on October 2, 2005
in Instant Messeging, Noteworthy and Tips n Tricks
. 15 Comments

It looks like a long time I posted last .. I was in a hectic schedule and thats it .. Anyway, I have decided to write about Instant Messengers this time, After my reviews of Yahoo Messenger and Msn Messenger, I got some very good responses .. So I start about Instant messengers, comparing the features of Yahoo Messenger and Msn Messenger , what I like and dislike in them .. I will conclude in the second part in which I’ll write what I want to have in the Instant Messenger of my choice .. So here we go ..

A preliminary

 

The instant messeging has been around for quite a long time now. What started with Unix’s chat program and slowly matured into IRC and then ICQ, was soon to become big business. I wont talk about the Irc’s history or how it matured but come straight to point .. The instant messenger users can be
classified into two types.. First, who are new to instant messeging, or email or the Internet itself and the second one who have been here for a long time . ..
The first type of people- who have just found out chatrooms, take pleasure in chatting in open chatrooms … Where they meet new people, befriend them, flirt with them, flame them and et all .. They are in process of increasing their contacts over the net .. Now the second type , since they’ve been around for some time now, they have many contacts on their lists .. Most of the time when they come online, they talk to their contacts and create closed chatrooms where the participants are invited and not everyone can join .. They may occasionally goto the open chatrooms for time pass but more often this is the case ..
My journey with Internet started long time ago .. Those days they had Yahoo’s Java chat and a program called Cheetah Chat for people not using Java chat .. As I enjoy chatting, my contact list soon grew big enough .. And now these days, for most of the time I am online, I am conversating with my existing friends and I seldom get time to goto chatrooms and flirt and all that .. So you see these closed chatrooms or just “Conferences” from here on (in YIM’s syntax) are as important as Open Chatrooms (Chatrooms from here on) …

Continue reading ‘A User’s Guide to Instant Messengers - I’

India stronger than China in long-term ..?

Published
by
Shahab
on August 22, 2005
in Noteworthy and World Around Us
. 2 Comments

There was a recent article in news which stated some magazines saying India’s long term potential maybe greater than China’s .. I somewhy disagree .. Here’s why ..
Most of the observations in the report are based on the governing structure of China .. Whereas India is a democratic country, China has communism .. I believe that democracy is one of hindrance in development (Btw .. I am not a communist) .. Why ..? For the simplest of reason.. Consensus is not always right .. Its not always true that what majority of people believe must also be correct .. Another reason is that as a democratic state, India has to plan its economic policies on a so called “human face” .. The governments cant enforce strict economic policies all because they fear losing their electorate … So they have to deviate between people’s “welfare” and economic reforms .. Mind you its not always that both are mutually exclusive but most of the time they are ..

Now coming to second point .. The report states that China is facing a shrinking workforce due to one child policy .. And by mid century, India will have around 200 Million more workers than China .. Oh yeah .. Considering the rate of unemployment in India and low rate of literacy, this huge population will become a burden .. Having more population does not mean that you have more workers .. It mean you have to support more people … So if not the government gets serious about unemployment and illiteracy, we on the roads of doom … And btw .. I believe that making people self employed is much easier than creating jobs .. Although, they have taken some measures in this regard but they arent enough ..

The report further states that “China’s lack of innovation and its tendency to be wasteful” can be a major drawback in next couple of decades .. Did I hear “lack of innovation” ..? I remember reading about China having world’s biggest ethanol plant and is building another equally big .. China like most developing countries import oil for its consumption .. With the soaring prices and increasing dependibility, most countries are looking at alternate sources of energy .. Bio diesel is one of them .. While China is doing well in this regard, India (which has a strong potential with Jatropha) is on backfoot with it .. This lack of foresight isnt good for India …

Another thing is that while most of the people depending on agriculture for their living, but the contribution to GDP by agriculture is very low .. A reason for this India’s agriculture being dependent on monsoon .. So if monsoon fails, agriculture fails … So creating infrastructures so that farmers become less dependent on rains will be an optimum decision …

Anyways .. I dont disagree with everything in the report …. There are many things which are really a must read .. You can read it here …

I conclude this with the last words of the article .. : What holds India back are red tape, rigid labor laws, and its inability to build infrastructure fast enough. With Beijing now pushing software and pledging intellectual property rights protection, some Indians fret design work will shift to China to be closer to factories.
Food for thought …?